Member postings for Ron Laden

I,ve not had too much workshop time this week but managed to add the radiator front assy, decided to add the wasp stripes at the same time.

Duncan, assuming your club can afford £120, surely the little generator in Nick,s link is the way to go. It has a 12 volt charging facility built in and gets excellent reviews, plus it gives you a 240 volt supply of course.

Just my thoughts.

Ron

As mentioned Michael, my minilathe is also a CJ18a and as I pointed out it is powered by a brushed motor not a brushless, but it is non the worse for that.

I would not worry about the torque and the top speed, with the high and low gear settings the lathe has a good range of speed and it is not short of power.

I agree with Ketan, use the lathe and have some fun, I,m sure you wont find the lathe a problem.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 31/08/2018 22:32:47

Edited By Ron Laden on 31/08/2018 22:33:26

Hi Michael,

I havnt followed all of this thread but if your minilathe is a CJ18a from Amadeal then it is a brushed dc motor.

I have a CJ18 and I was just speaking to Amadeal about something else and I asked them about brushless minilathes. They have a brushless version which is about to be announced but they wont have stock for another month. So all their minilathes to date have been brushed motors.

Can I just ask why you feel it necessary to go to the trouble of modifying your lathe, your choice of course but my CJ18 I think is fine speed wise. Low gear: 39 - 1080 High gear: 97 - 2504 and I dont think it is short of torque it seems to have plenty of power.

Ron

Jason,

Do you have your collection of stationary engines on display around your home, the ones I have seen look to be lovely pieces of engineering which deserve to be on show.

Ron

Bazyle, from your post I assume you can pick stuff up at your tip..? Not ours, they wont let you have anything once its on site. I was there a couple of weeks back and a guy was throwing away a small multi drawer metal cabinet which I thought would be useful in the workshop. The guy agreed to let me take it but one of the tip guys came along as we were carrying it from the guys car to mine. I explained but the tip guy said not on site could we, he said if we wanted to do that it had to be off site. On a couple of occasions I have asked if I could have something but its always the same...NO.

Thanks for all the info guys, some interesting reading there.

This is right off the top of my head so bear with me, I wondered if I could make some small castings with the solder. I know that solder is relatively soft but I wouldnt want to machine the castings just clean them up by hand. I was wondering what I could use for the moulds, would some form of clay work, it would be good if it would as I could make the patterns from wood and press them into the clay to form the moulds.

Or is it a daft idea..?

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 24/08/2018 09:34:50

I googled it and quite a few references came up, plumbers, car bodies, soldering machines, electrical joints plus others. I also found a bit of history on Fry,s, they produced non ferrous alloys, solders, anti friction material and "white brass". A question: what is White Brass, I,ve never heard of it.

Ron

David,

No number but a large capital "K" is stamped on the back.

Richard,

Yes it weighs more than a pound, not weighed it but it feels like a kilo at least.

Ron

Would anyone know what type of solder this is...plumbers solder..? I found it in the back of a shed but have no idea where it came from or how it got there.

Cab roof, doors and window frames added, next job is the front radiator grill and fins.

p.s. Forgot to say, Mentioning radiator fins I need to treat myself to a Costa coffee and whilst there sneak away a handful of wooden coffee stirrers....

Edited By Ron Laden on 23/08/2018 10:17:52

David, If you are looking for thin/non spongy double sided tape go to a carpet shop/supplier, thats where I have always got mine. Its usually 50mm wide, thin and as sticky as hell, well at least the roll I have is.

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 21/08/2018 15:56:30

Edited By Ron Laden on 21/08/2018 15:59:05

Placed the body on the chassis, starting to look a bit more shunter like...I think..?

Ron

I,ve managed to get the bare bones of the cab area together, doors still to make, window frames and trims to do plus make and fit the roof. Still a lot of detail to do but its coming together and most importantly its fun.

Ron

Thank you Paul,

I dont know that I deserve such praise, I just put as many hours in as I can which like many of us never seems enough. I only manage around 20 hours a week as life tends to get in the way.

I am part way through building the cab, will add a picture later.

Cheers

Ron

A couple of weeks back I got some new tyres for my old bandsaw and gave it a bit of a service. It had been stashed away in the back of a shed for the best part of 10 years and the tyres had perished and fallen apart.

Today I was cutting some parts for the 0-4-0 when it started to slow down and it eventually stopped. I thought the motor had given up, but it was the drive belt which had gone the way of the tyres and ended in bits. Luckily when I bought the tyres I also bought a spare belt which is unusual for me as I normally dont think that far ahead.

Anyway new belt fitted and I have been making sawdust most of the afternoon, I had forgotten how versatile a bandsaw can be. Its amazing how small a radius you can cut, especially if you cut a small length of radius then cut that piece away and do it in steps working your way around.

I was doing exactly the same, I was trying to point out that they are typical youngsters and to most youngsters model engineering is probably as interesting as watching paint dry.

Well in answer to my original question it would seem there are mixed views and opinions, some thinking it is in decline others not. With regards to encouraging young people into the hobby that would be difficult if our family is anything to go by.

We have 5 grandsons, ages 22, 21, 18, 13 and 9 and they have all visited my workshop. From what I can gather the oldest two are interested in nights out, drinking, women, football and cars. They are in their early twenties so I guess its to be expected. The 18 year old doesnt seem to be interested in anything much at all, he goes to work comes home and watches TV, goes to work watches TV, goes to work....etc etc. The 13 year old is grafted to an X Box, so much so if you wanted to take it away from him it would probably need surgery to remove it. The youngest grandson did take a bit more interest, after I explained the lathe he did ask if he could have a go. I put up some alu bar and he did a bit of turning and facing which he said "was great" whether that sparked anything that will lead to further interest I wonder.

They are all young, but who knows in the future one or two of them may get interested, you never know and I live in hope.

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/08/2018 14:39:10

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/08/2018 14:40:52

I think better with the buffer plates removed they were for a different body style.

The hardware can be added to the front chassis spreader plate.

Well I,ve made a start on the body, built the basics of the front section. It will be based on a 08 (ish) shunter, I know it looks like a box on wheels, but if you take the detail off an 08 thats what your left with (see picture in previous post).

So lots of detail to add, well when I say lots, enough to make it at least look like something realistic.

The next stage is to add the rear section/cab, the body so far is a combination of 6mm MDF, pine quarter quadrant and 0.8 mm modelling ply. I,ve added the engine access door panels to each side and also fixed the cab front.

Ron

p.s. Although its not intended as a scale loco I think I will lose the buffer plates, they just dont look right. 

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/08/2018 10:32:33

Edited By Ron Laden on 19/08/2018 10:39:56