Downsizing in Metalwork

[Alan 1,273]

 I'm running out of suitable complimentary words Richard. 

[Stormin 4,458]

I don't think I'd worry about the letters that have moved, Richard. Doubt anyone will notice if you don't tell them.

[Wallfish 698]

Truly impressive! The art, mechanical details and especially the talent to be able to do it.

Building a museum quality piece like that will be a priceless satisfaction when it's completed. Something money can't buy.

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

On 12/17/2020 at 7:55 PM, Alan said:

 I'm running out of suitable complimentary words Richard. 

 

I'm always grateful Alan and thanks. If the Topic/thread provides interest and something to read/look at being produced, then it has served it's purpose.

Interests vary and is always good to see them all in material forms such as on this Forum, irrespective of varying skill levels and subjects.

 

On 12/17/2020 at 9:02 PM, Stormin said:

I don't think I'd worry about the letters that have moved, Richard. Doubt anyone will notice if you don't tell them.

 

Reckon you're right Norm. They are obscured by the wheels. Only needed a few thousands of an inch variation on the flatness of the retaining plate while heating up for the lettering to be able to shift.

 

On 12/25/2020 at 4:35 AM, Wallfish said:

Truly impressive! The art, mechanical details and especially the talent to be able to do it.

Building a museum quality piece like that will be a priceless satisfaction when it's completed. Something money can't buy.

 

Humbled John. Thanks. Learned to love the qualities of metals and lucky to have lots of patience. Things take me a long time to do, what with learning as I go.

A project to me is loads of smaller projects which combine to make a finished one,  hence the slow pace. Happy with the progress and the finished item is in sight

Regards

 

Well I somehow endured the low temperatures and managed to get some colour on this Water Cart. Matt finish is important as it seems to improve the appearance of a model this size.

I had to use 2 different primers, one on the metal parts and another on the wood. Top coat went on fine with only a few undesirable bits in it which were easy to remove after.

I used my 45 year old Badger 200 Airbrush, which had done many Murals on Car and Van panels back in the 1970s and still going strong-

 

 

 

Once dry, I was able to pick out the raised lettering in yellow, a challenge with a tiny 6 bristled sable brush and an Eye Glass, while holding my breath to keep my hand steady-

 

 

Currently a partial assembly to keep the bits together and dust free-

 

 

Colour variations are due to available light, but the last image is what the colour is by eye. Valve internal parts now fitted. Matt varnish for top coat is on order.

Currently dulling off the shiny wheel rims using acid to etch the finish.

Regards

 

[Alan 1,273]

Once again Richard. 

[Aiberdonian 98]

I too am most impressed with the detail involved in this project, I didn't quite realise how small things were until I looked up 12BA in my wee thread guide to find it only goes as far as 10BA and that IS small.
I'm afraid my hands would not be steady enough to do half of this.

[Stormin 4,458]

 Beautiful job, Richard.

 

 I'm interested to see how you do the horse.

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Thanks gents. 

                        Hope all are dodging the virus and keeping sane.

 

On 1/8/2021 at 7:45 AM, Stormin said:

 I'm interested to see how you do the horse.

Hi Norm, yeah, long wait ,  I've decided not to go down that route. To get a decent 1/12th example, it's about a £100.

It will be stand alone with all the fittings options, or attached to the Engine, which would make the shafts redundant and were only really an exercise for me initially.

                       

Not much to show for in over a month what with the cold temps.

Geared up ready the moment the temp gets above 10c and low humidity to carry on painting this and the Engine.

Sorted the issue of dulling off the steel rim faces, well it will do-

 

9

 

As I had already painted the wheels, I used a homemade type of 'Q' tip loaded with 37% Sulphuric acid and continually rotated the wheel to keep the applied acid even.

Took 5 mins each wheel, then clean off and neutralised. Did not affect the paint and will get a coat of matt lacquer over the whole wheel(s).

I should really paint the shafts and props the same as the body, but will leave them for now.

 

 

Spray bar and connections to finish.  Hoses to make next when the materials arrive. 

 

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Well, It's a bit quiet here again. so I'll add an update in the hope someone will be along later and may want to view something recently posted. Would be sorry to see this forum close.

Switched my attention over to the Engine where, for longer than I had planned, have been making tiny bits I'd delayed until I began the final assembly.

Loads of preparation before I could dodge the weather conditions and get the etch primer on during the good still, dry days since last September.

Tested the water pump and all's well, so fitted to it's permanent location-

 

 

Did some micro milling on the pump's eccentric sheave using a 1/16" diameter Slot Drill to reflect the casting style of the full size. 

Finished the motion work at the cylinder end and has all the full size detail design specification incorporated-

 

 

The Back Plate carrying the regulator lever and the gear selector now has a number plaque fitted.

8mm between the fixings and the numbers bent to shape with tweezers from tinned fuse wire,  sweated into a bed of solder in the recess of the plaque and painted.

The numbers relate to the boiler's certification reference numbers-

 

 

 

I shall be dulling off all the bright polished steel bits using the same process as in the Water Cart wheel rim faces.

The pump eccentric strap and rod (2nd pic) have been treated and look much more realistic in this scale.

I have managed to get some top coat onto the Tender/Manstand and a few other parts today, so I hope I can maintain the progress rate.

 

Regards. 

 

[Alan 1,273]

As you say Richard, very quiet on here just now.  As to your latest photo's and detail work.  .

[the showman 4,074]

More fantastic work Richard 

[nigel 1,876]

 Bloody Fantastic Richard 👍👍

[meadowfield 1,900]

the more I see, the more I'm astounded!  such awesome engineering!

[Stormin 4,458]

 Superb work, Richard.

[expeatfarmer 591]

Fantastic detail well done.

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Many thanks guys. Hope all are well and upbeat on the anticipation of getting back to normal. I'll try and make greater progress on this before I post more pics after this post.

Along with other parts, I have managed to get the last top coat on the Tender/Manstand part of the engine which was giving me a challenge trying to keep it free of contaminates while spraying.

Completed the assembly of the front axle with the addition of the 'Spud' ring and pan design to the model-

 

 

 

The 'Pan' part was fabricated with a lid from a Duraglit tin. The design was copied from  photos of a full size T Engine.

 Fitted the finished wheels that have smaller hub caps and correct style 'Oilers'-

 

 

The colour is a dark royal blue over black primer which is close to Prussian blue.

There will be no fancy fairground colours or coach lines, as this is to be representative of a 'bog standard' utility general purpose engine.

 

While it is mainly still in bits, I take the opportunity of fettling the 'motion' parts to ensure they are all clean, close fitting, but smooth.

The con rod is a redesign to full size spec, which was a bit of a challenge when I made it 30 years ago with little experience of working metal or machines-

 

 

The all important Reversing lever and quadrant are also redesigned as per full size versions. For size comparison, the 3 tapered pins in the weigh shaft (bottom) are 3/64" dia (1.2mm)-

 

 

The finish on the lifting linkage below is after it has been dulled off with sulphuric acid, which makes the appearance more in scale.

The tiny split pin in view is 1/32" dia (0.8mm). I had to reduce the size a bit and make 10 of them-

 

 

I hope to make more progress in a week or two and hopefully start to look like an engine.

Regards.

  

 

[Stormin 4,458]

 You MADE the split pins!!

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

On 3/30/2021 at 7:51 AM, Stormin said:

 You MADE the split pins!!

Hi Norm/All,

                      Well I made the pins from a larger size. I had to reduce them and 'draw down' the eye part to under 1/16"dia, which is still out of scale, but much closer and still manageable to fit/remove.

Well over the last few days, I've made a bit of progress with painting and assembly.

Got past the difficult bit of fitting the horn plates, shafts and the Backhead fittings with minimal need for paint touch ups. Bit difficult to get enough light into the dark areas of black painted bits-

 

   

 

The fitting of the Tender to the horn plates went ok and has 8 x 8ba bolts/nuts on each side, plus 4 x 7ba for the axle bearings.

Original design was just the 4 bearing bolts and a single bolt/nut at the top each side.

Quite pleased with the colour and should look plain, but smart when finished.

I even made the steps with a 'raised' pattern chequer plate, rather than just saw cuts. The bright handle fitting serves to bolt the coal bunker plate to the tender side -

 

 

 

The oil boxes all have filter screens inside to keep the moving bits clean.

I think I will dull off the duck boarding a bit, as it looks a bit 'orange boxy' yellow to me.

Regards.

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

After 2 months of poor weather conditions, I have managed to continue with painting and some assembly. I finally fitted the last of the valve covers on the cylinder block after setting all the valve event adjustments and finishing the motion work off to a standard of sewing machine smoothness. This allowed me to apply a penultimate semi matt black coat over all the joints, stud heads and nuts to consolidate the whole finish. The Chimney saddle and the exhaust pipe were painted separately, as the saddle is bolted, instead of the original model design of riveting. It is easier this way, as I can reach into awkward corners and touch in the bolt heads with the Airbrush on a fine setting.

Just need a little more care this way of fitting without paint damage. I detailed the exhaust a bit more with fitting a bolted flange at the cylinder end. The exhaust is 1/4" diameter pipe for clarity-

 

 

The Regulator Rod just under the safety valves in the next pic has a dummy tail rod and gland. I have to make the 2 x 14ba studs and nuts for it yet.

I decided to machine and file it from the excess metal on the casting to give it some detail, as the original model design just showed a lump of round metal there.  

A bit of cleaning up of the overspray on the raised brass lettering to do, but otherwise a major step forward on the assembly front-

 

 

I did manage to get the top coat on the flywheel last month and very pleased with the finish. Only temporarily fitted, so the gib key pulls out easily-

 

 

Hopefully progress and updates will continue to speed up now, as the jobs on other projects are building up as well as work down at the museum.

I have managed to get some lathe time in though, helping out with making unobtainable parts for old mowers for a guy on the Old Lawnmower Club forum, so I have been busy really.

Regards.

[Alan 1,273]

Once again Richard.          Amazing work.

[Stormin 4,458]

10 hours ago, Alan said:

Once again Richard.          Amazing work.

 

I second that.

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

Hello Gents,

                      Thanks for viewing and your comments. A little more progress to date. The front end is more or less sorted ready for the chimney to go on and is now sitting on it's front wheels.

The cylinder in the original model design had a bland side face just shaped and usually painted black. I, as may be seen in a previous post,  just had to make things more difficult for the sake of detail.

I made up a cover plate and secured it with screws as per the full size engines. This has been painted the same dark blue as other parts and (I think) helps to finish the area off. 

I have just replaced the last temporary screw on the cylinder part for a stud/nut, but you will see a countersunk screw in the top Guide Bar in this pic which I had taken earlier.

The tiny (7mm dia) steel handwheel on the Blower Valve was drilled and finish filed by hand/eye, but looks ok I think.-

 

 

The steering chain drum finshed and now fitted is also modified from the model design to reflect full size layout. The chain (brass) is what used to be supplied to clockmakers for the winding system on long cases.

I plan too make my own at a later stage in steel with brazed links-

 

 

Lastly for now, I finished making the square headed blanking plugs and stop pins in bronze for the water pump and now fitted in it's partially hidden place down behind the rear wheel.

Original model design was for it to fit on the side of the boiler, which looks way out of scale, and over the years, other modellers have experienced priming issues when in steam with boiler mounted pumps.

I think it is because of the heat, but I fortunately redesigned this back in 1987 to locate in a cool area similar to full size layout-

 

 

 

Sorry about the last image quality, I deleted the wrong one . You may notice a red dot adjacent to gear tooth on both the 2nd and 3rd motion shaft gear wheels.

I have a slight resistance in rotation where these two coincide, so i think i must have a tiny burr on them, so i will pull these off and run them with some p600/oil & 'T' cut grinding paste to bed them in.

The running clearances were set using cigarette papers (about 0.0015"), so it doesn't take much to obstruct free movement. Hopefully more soon.

Regards.

 

 

[Stormin 4,458]

I plan too make my own at a later stage in steel with brazed links-

 

You don't half like to make things difficult for yoursel', Richard.

 

 

[Anglo Traction 1,016]

On 6/9/2021 at 9:20 PM, Stormin said:

You don't half like to make things difficult for yoursel', Richard.

 

Long time since I posted.      Norm, yes. Although since i said that, my chances of actually making them is diminishing. The wrist joints are a real issue now and holding up my progress on many things.

Prioritising this project has now brought it to nearly finished stage. Last week, it took 2 days to mask off the rear wheel sides and strakes (treads) to etch prime/paint the faces of the rims-

 

 

Need to dull off the front rims next

 

 

 

With this back together on wheels, I finished making the alternative drawbar for the Water Cart so it can be 'hitched up'.

Trial fit to check levels-

 

 

 Hoses and plumbing to do on this next.

 

Regards

  

 

[Stormin 4,458]

Excellent work Richard.