Member postings for Bob Wild

Thanks chaps for all your comments and encouragement, but wait till you see it moving and pumping!

Bob

Fire King is finished:

Done the final details . Added pin striping on the side panels. A bit shaky, but I'm not too displeased with my first attempt. Then I added the etchings. I relied on a tutorial from another member on this forum to copy from a photo print onto a piece of brass. I found this was a bit hit and miss. After several attempts to iron on the text I manged to get most of the letters on. Again, not perfect but passable. If it ever stops raining I will post some videos of it working.

Made a bit of a mistake with the driver. I didn't realise I had ordered a headless model and I have failed miserably in trying to get one of the female members of the family to make him some clothes. The brass helmet will be a bit of a challenge!

It has been quite a marathon project. It has taken me two years and at a conservative estimate I reckon about 1500 hours. Possibly nearer two thousand. I'm not sure I would have started it if I had known how long it was going to take!

Anyway, it has been good fun, and I will certainly enjoy Hogmanay tonight, then I can start on my next project - "Stephenson's Rocket"

Thanks to all those who have helped and a Happy New Year to all.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wild on 31/12/2022 16:03:48

Edited By Bob Wild on 31/12/2022 16:11:31

Does anyone know of a good source of 1/12 scale model people to add to my Fire King engine?

I agree totally with Peter. If you read my earlier post , not only were the drawings terrible quality but they had moved from the address on them many years ago. So when I posted off the distorted entablature it disappeared into the ether. They were totally unrepentant and refused to supply a replacement until I sent them the original. Very poor customer service.

Bob

The last part of this build is the hose assembly. After a load of constructive suggestions from other members I finally settled on Shoe Laces ! It is actually Tubular Cotton Braid Undyed, and I'm quite pleased with it's appearance.

These are all the components to assemble it to the pump:

Here it is mounted round the front. The hose is connected to the pump and wraps around the sides and front. Astonishingly it does actually pump water with a jet about six feet into the air. Video to follow shortly. Added a few more details on the front, like what Cherry Hill did. Spot lights, a Bell and two nozzles

Now all that remains is to completely strip it down, clean up all the gunge and repaint as required.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wild on 29/11/2022 16:40:36

The shoe laces have it !

After a bit of trial and error getting the right size braid and tube I finally ended up with Cotton Tubular Braid Undyed, and this is the result:

Quite pleased with the outcome and thanks again for all your varied suggestions.

Bob

A major milestone today. Got the drive chains mounted and finally managed to get the FK moving. The video is a bit short cos it careered off under my car. Then I realised that the front wheels were not actually bolted on.

The end is in sight - just got the hoses and water stuff to do. Then a bit of cleaning and touch up the paint

Edited By Bob Wild on 03/10/2022 22:57:09

Edited By Bob Wild on 03/10/2022 23:02:34

Edited By Bob Wild on 03/10/2022 23:04:53

Wow, this simple request has generated a lot of lateral thinking. From shoe laces to sash cords and guitar cables. Much food for thought, but I'm sure I'll find something suitable.

Bob

Thanks George. That sounds interesting. My hose will be about 8mm dia and I can see there are Big Laces that would fit. Might buy some and see what they look like.

Bob

Thanks chaps for all your suggestions. I had already thought about French Knitting but would need a lot of testing and experimenting. Have seen some cotton braiding in a cream colour which might be near to khaki. Not sure what happens when you spray paint such that you can still make it flexible. You have pointed me in the right direction but still have a bit of work to do.

Bob

Thanks Werner and Roger. Yes, I am going to put a tensioner on the chain. I tried it with a hand held support which did indeed help. The method used on the Hungerford machine looks too complicated for me. The springs are very stiff and don't deflect very much at all. My only problem will be fitting one in the space available - ti is getting very crowded in that area!

Incidentally, I have been thinking about a good way to make an authentic looking fire hose, Any ideas? I habe posted a general question in this thread:

Fire Hose like Cherry Hill

Bob

Coming shortly on my Fire King is the fire hose. Most of the models I have seen use plain black rubber tube. But this is what Cherry Hill made, which looks much more authentic. So my question is "How on earth do you set about making it?"

A major milestone today!

Cut the gears, which was a new experience for me. Not too many problems once I got the hang of the dividing head. Since I moved the valve eccentrics ages ago I couldn't use the engagement lever as Julius designed it. So I had to resort to what is probably an unorthodox but effect design of my own. The gear slides in a clevis which is moved in and out with a square shaft. A pin is used to lock the clevis in either the engaged or disengaged position. Here are the parts of the assembly (the chain wheels are proprietary items) :

And this is the complete assembly:

And here installed in the engine:

And finally I have drive to the wheels. Fitting the chains was a nightmare. To start with I made the chains such that they just fitted with a minimum of play. But the links kept jamming. So I tried making them a bit longer. But you can't get a bit longer because you have to increase by one whole link. The end result means that the chain flaps around terribly. So I'm going to try inserting some sort of tensioner. Anyway the engine does drive the wheels which to me is a major achievement. I was quite pleased that the control valve does indeed control the speed. Pity the wheels are a bit wobbly, so I'll have to have a look at that!

I suppose a restrictor is a good idea. The boiler did actually supply steam to a Turkish Bath. Wouldn’t want to scald the clients. Still not sure weather the grease monkeys were that bothered though, although they did entertain a very small boy 👦

Edited By Bob Wild on 22/03/2022 20:05:55

I inherited these discs from the boiler house work bench where my dad worked about seventy years ago. Curious to know what they were used for. The holes seem to be accurately made in quarter of an inch steps from 1 1//5 down to 1/4 and the last one at 1/8 in dia. They were in a small tin labelled "Quikies" - my wife knows what they were, but my understanding of a quikie was somewhat different!

Finally got the wheels finished, including some gold striping. Quite pleased with the results. The lines could have been wider, but that was the maximum my pen would open.

Added minor details to be more like the real thing. The rear wheels have an extra (strengthening?) ring. The chain wheel was solid when I got it, so I machined some spokes for authenticity. Also each hub has a funny fitting in the centre. Not sure what they are; grease boxes perhaps ?

And finally it is starting to look like a fire engine:

Hi Werner,

I haven't seen your radio controlled fire engine. Are there any posts about it? You certainly seem to have had fun with your tyres. That's a good idea about UHU. I was thinking of using some similar type of contact adhesive. Maybe the kind used to bond car windscreen rubber in place or an impact adhesive like Evo-stick.. I'll do a few experiments.

Bob

Good progress with the wheels. I thought I'd show some of my machining operations as I was using a faceplate for the first time. Any comments from the experts would be post appreciated. My idea was to build the whole assembly on a disc of aluminium which could be moved between the faceplate and the mill rotary table without moving any parts. This way I would (hopefully) maintain concentricity.

The outer rim was made from four strips of brass pinned and glued together:

Mounted on the faceplate I machined the outer diameter:

Then the inner diameter:

Because of the size of the rim I couldn't figure out how to machine the tyre groove on the OD, so I transferred to the rotary table and slowly milled the groove:

I also drilled the holed for the axles with the same setup. Then on the bench I could assemble the axles and the hub:

I was disappointed to realise that when I machined the tyre groove most of the pins I had put in to hold it all together had been nearly machined away and the whole assembly looked a bit flimsy. So I decided to add a brass tyre at the bottom of the groove and screw that in place. That seemed to work well, but it did reduce the depth of the groove from 8mm to 6 mm. Fortunately I already had the neoprene square section for the tyres and with a bit if experimenting found I could mill 2mm off the thickness - disaster averted. So here is one of the finished wheels. Not sure how to bond the neoprene tyre to the rim though. Any suggestions?

Bob

Who said model engineering was interesting and challenging ? Got to make fifty six of theses little blighters to locate the wheel spokes !

And then there's the little matter of fifty six spokes.

Bob

Edited By Bob Wild on 11/02/2022 22:42:13

Hi (also Bob)

I used Hammerite smooth gloss (not the old hammer finish). On the tin it said that primer was not required. So that is what I did. I did rub it down after four coats and then treat it with car polish. I'm quite happy with the result, but we shall see what it's like in the long term. Unfortunately, I'm no expert in these matters, so it is very much a matter of learning from experience!

Bob