Member postings for Iain Pailing

On a recent visit to Statfold Barn Railway I discovered they are having another loco built for their new railway. The gauge is 12.5" but, unfortunately, I can't remember who they have contracted to build it for them. I'm sure if you contacted them they would be happy to give you the details. If their builder cannot help you I suspect they will have an idea of who may be able to help.

Hope this helps in your quest.

Iain

Hi Harry,

Try looking on the 16mm web site on the 'resources' pages. You could also try Anything Narrow Gauge, Chuffed to Bits, Roundhouse Engineering or possibly Garden Railway Specialists. If they cannot help they may be able to point you in the right direction. Might also be worth contacting Polly Models.

Hope this helps,

Iain

Hi,

Have you tried using sugar soap as used in home decorating? I model in 16mm and have had some success cleaning off fluxes of both types. You may find the best way is to heat in a suitable pan. It has the advantage of not leaving any residue and can be made in a concentration suitable for your requirement. I don't know if it will discolour the surface if allowed to soak for too long but that can be tried on a piece of waste material.

Thanks for the replies to my query. I should say that the thread cut has an excellent finish and the lathe was used on the slowest speed possible. My opening line was merely a comment on the generous assistance given when I was having problems initially.

The replies indicate the sensible way ahead is to get individual tools as they are needed rather than a set which will contain tools which may be an unnecessary waste of space. I envisage using the purchased items as patterns for making my own from hss tool blanks. At least that way I will have a baseline to start from as I have only used indexable tools so far.

The radius of the inserts may be partly to blame for the less than ideal finish as those currently fitted are not classified as 'finishing/polishing' grade.

Although the EE tool looks very interesting, I can't justify the purchase for the amount of use it would get - however that is not necessarily set in stone!

Hi all, having succeeded in cutting my first screw thread here is the next question. To date I have gone for indexable lathe tools but the finish isn't always as good as I would have hoped so I am going to try my hand with high speed steel tools and all that this entails in terms of sharpening and profiling. Is there anything I should avoid when purchasing a set of say 8 in a box from any of the usual suppliers? Any words of wisdom will be most welcome. Thank you , Iain Pailing

Thanks to all who responded to my plea. My lathe has the plate fitted but I didn't have a clue how to read it - I do now! As the 42 tooth gear wheel is about as rare as rocking horse poo I'll just leave the half nuts engaged and reverse the lathe. It's only a short length of thread to be cut and there's no panic to get it done so I can use the rest of the piece to try it and get some experience before doing it in anger.

I'm trying to cut an M16 x 1.5 thread on my Warco 180. The leadscrew is 2mm and the gear train set up as per the plate on the cover. The problem I am having is that I cannot pick up the cut on successive passes even though I'm using the same point on the thread dial indicator. I am ending up with a cut every .5mm or so instead of the single thread at 1.5mm. Am I doing something wrong or is it likely to be a problem with the lathe? Any thoughts would be welcome before I tear my hair out in frustration.