Member postings for Ron Laden

Thanks guys,

I was going with British Rail Green with more black and yellow chevrons on the front and at the rear of the cab.

Pink...? I just cant get my head around that at the moment, I,m hoping it will be forgotten and go away but knowing the great grand daughters it probably wont.

Ron

Chassis top plate (3mm steel) added as well as the front and rear plates again in 3mm steel. Need to turn up some buffers and add a front and rear clevis type coupling as well as a bit of detail for the plates and chassis side frames.

It will then be the body to build, I,ve decided on 6mm MDF for the main body parts and yes it will be sealed, primed and painted so quite weather proof. The beauty of MDF is the sheets are generally very flat and the surface finish is very good so its not too difficult to produce a good finish.

I have decided to go with a class 08 shunter type body though as I mentioned before this is obviously not a scale loco but a look alike. Our two great grand daughters for whom I am building the loco keep mentioning a Thomas the Tank face on the front and one of them even suggested the loco should be pink...

Regards

Ron

I have a Mitutoyo Digimatic which I just worked out is 35 years old, it is still as smooth as silk and just feels right. I also have a cheapie version and though it is 9 years old and still working it just doesnt feel the same. Thinking about it, I guess that nine times out of ten I pick up the Digimatic rather then the cheapie.

Thank you Jason, I enjoyed those, very informative.

If as you advise, using a small amount of Maxsyn cutting fluid, would that be neat fluid..?

Regards

Ron

And I bet that Halfords, Aldi and Lidl tools are all made in China, not everything from China is low quality.

I think there are many people who buy cheapo brushes and then throw them away at the end of the job, but a cheap brush will never give you as good a job as a top quality brush. The cheapies dont come anywhere close to the finish from a quality brush.

Whats the saying "you get what you pay for" and unfortunately Stanley and a number of other well know brand names are just supplying items they bring in from China, the price reflects it.

I use Purdy brushes, not cheap but superb quality, a decorating pro told me about them. They last a long time if well looked after, they dont shed bristles and they keep their shape.

Thanks Neil

I must admit I am enjoying it.

Ron

Well, not that far from having a working rolling chassis, the chassis and parts have been primed and painted and re-assembled. I mentioned previously that the drive assembly was noisy so I carried out a couple of mods. The motor plates run on the axles and they were mounted via a 16mm long oilite bearing, I have doubled the length of the bearing to 30mm to offer more support. I have also added a nylon guide roller at each end of the motor plate to prevent any metal to metal contact when the plate moves vertically with the axle suspension.

The mods have certainly reduced the noise and it certainly sounds better than it did. I also noticed that when the drive is running a little finger pressure at each end of the motor plate improves it further. I am thinking of adding an extension spring at each end of the motor plate connected between the top of the plate and the underside of the chassis top plate. I,m hoping this will load the plate and have the same result as some finger pressure does but we will see..?

As you can tell a lot of this is trial and error and working it out as I go but one thing is for certain, it is FUN.

Pictures below:

A picture of the nylon guide roller.

Thanks Ian.

Ady, I wasnt looking for the best but asked if CI was a good bearing material which apparently it is.

Ron

Thanks guys for all the advice, its much appreciated and I have learnt a lot from your replies.

When I have finished the little electric 0-4-0 (which is running on oilite bearings) I want to design and build a Class 22 Baby Warship which is a twin bogie / 4 axle loco. Whilst jotting down ideas for the design of the bogies, I realised that if I went with off the shelf oilites they would need to be modified to fit . This is fine but I thought why bother..? better to make my own bearings from scratch that fit the job, hence my interest in going with cast iron.

Thanks again guys.

Regards

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 29/07/2018 09:24:53

Edited By Ron Laden on 29/07/2018 09:25:47

Thanks Dave,

The bearings I will be making will be simple shoulder bushes with a bore size of around 5/8". This leads to another question, to achieve this "thin cushion of oil" what clearance should there be between the axle and bearing.

Ron

Thanks guys, when I am that stage I will turn myself some C/I bearings.

I did read this morning of someone building a 5 inch steam loco and he argued that cast iron bearings will easily outlast bronze bearings, dont know if that is true but thats what he claimed.

Ron

Talking of lightning/thunder storms, I live right next door to the village church and last year we had a mother of a storm travel straight over the top of us. We were sitting indoors and suddenly there was what can only be described as an explosion, as if a huge bomb had gone off.

The next morning it turned out that the church tower had taken a direct hit, the cap on the top of the flag pole was blown off as was the top parts of the weather vane. Two weeks later and talking to one of the electrical engineers doing the repairs, they found the revolving part of the vane was welded solid. The tower is fitted with a copper earth strap but the engineer said that they are not guaranteed to prevent damage. The church had to be re-wired as the wiring was wrecked with wall lights and sockets blown out of the walls but fortunately no fire.

The engineers theory was that the lightning struck the wet painted flag pole (the highest part of the church) travelled down and did its damage before the earth strap came into play. There was also structural damage to the top of the tower.

Just shows the power of an electrical storm, quite scary.

Edited By Ron Laden on 27/07/2018 09:49:17

We had a storm back in April with forked lighting all over the place, I was stood outside watching it and that didnt have a lot of sound, maybe it depends on the type of lightning.

Edited By Ron Laden on 27/07/2018 09:01:39

Thanks Brian, thats good to know

Ron

Forgot to say the axles I am thinking of would be from EN8 steel.

Ron

Is cast iron a good material for motion bearings, any problems with it..?

Ron

Welcome To The Machine...Pink Floyd

Gordon, many moons ago when we had a 1/4 acre veg garden, I had a petrol engine garden tiller where you could remove the blades from the hexagon drive shaft and fit on a pair of pneumatic wheels. There was a trailer you could buy to fit on the back but I never got one, I did think of building one but never got around to it.

Edited By Ron Laden on 22/07/2018 16:19:30