Member postings for JC Uknz 1

Yes go for it ...jump in .... the water's fine

Though I think 1 3/8" isn't any known gauge or scale ... better work in metric where you have 32mm and 45mm gauge .

32mm folk I think mainly/usually model in 16mm/foot scale as if a two foot prototype except in NZ they model NZR which is 42" gauge and the scale is 9mm/ft. They are the rivet counters.

For what you think you want to do 45mm would likely be better where Gauge 1 work to 7mm/ft  [as I was ear bashed by a P4 worker the other night when O gauge was discussed ]

Though personally I currently work to a loading gauge of 150mm x120mm which maybe 1/20 scale. Though have some models scratch built to half inch scale ... they are NZR prototypes.

There are lots of people who model in all sorts of scales and gauges ... that is Narrow Gauge modelling

Been doing it for 35+ years now

You could be interested in looking at IP Engineering who recently added a railbus thing to their catalog they supply lazer-cut kits which are nice to put together which wouldn't strain your body .

Afterthought what about a quarter size RobRoy running on 45mm track, lpg fired with just as single central fire tube ... bits from Roundhouse of Doncaster [ and others, Forest Classics etc ]

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 19/02/2015 07:16:43

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 19/02/2015 07:25:29

I was enthused by an article I read where another enthused guy had used one to make plastic dump trucks for his garden railway so I bought one .... URRRGH!

What he didn't mention was the need to know how to write a computer programme to drive the machine .... so my NZ$2055 expenditure currently is a heavy lump of metal etc sitting in my workshop ... unused since the day it arrived.

I thought I could make figures for my garden railway and subsequently found somebody in China who I suspect has mastered the art of programming who sold me all I need at a fraction of the price of even just the plastic let alone the machine .... fools and their money etc.

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 19/02/2015 06:46:39

Confused by what I find on my web search

There surely must be an easy factor to multiply bar to find equivalent psi or divide psi to find bar?

Thankyou JasonB ... I was aware of young Kennedy's building efforts as a fellow member of OMES

Was interested in that Auckland model on TradeMe which is now listed for the third time but for the same reason he is selling I now think it is unwise to bid myself ... mainly the problems of moving it between my two workshops ... downstairs one becuase the Mill at 55kg was too heavy for me to carry upstairs ... I used my handybilly to lift it off the floor from its delivery case onto its bench... but that was not an option to go upstairs.

I guess I will have to stay with my Gauge One/"LGB" efforts though I do have a 3.5" loco at about the same stage of progress with copper waiting for boiler ...I must remember I am getting on in my 84th year

Thanks everybody.

Cannot find anything in my search of web ... anybody tell me

I have three displacement lubricators in my locomotives and in all the steam passes through the lubricator and some condenses in the lubricator to raise the oil level which mixes withmore steam and is thereby carried to the cylinder.

I assume the drawing that you [OP] are looking at is not a full drawing though I learnt much of what I know by reading most of the LBSC articles in ME thanks to a Club library. I have never seen a drawing that inferred the steam went into the lub and came out with some oil. The lub is in the path of the steam between boiler/regulastor and cylinder.. The earlier linkied photo show them with an in-pipe and an out-pipe and filling screw at top. ZThe better versions have a draw cock [ just a screw with centre drilled out to sideways pipe which opens as screw in withdrawn. Ideally this is placed to the side of the loco cab so it drains the water off the loco..... sadly my Accucraft locos do not have this drain and one has to use a syringe to extract the water. My Roundhouse 'bertie' is better designed in this respect and drains clear of the track.

Early on in my clumbsiness I over filled one lub but I didn't notice any problems ... obviously not desirable ..

EDIT with the small No.70 hole only a small amoun of steam escapes the delivery pipe to force the oil up and into the steam supply ... most is traveklling straight through along the pipe.   I did think afterwards I remember seeing various drawing where there is a mechanical lubricator which is obviously better but also more work involved. I assume LBSC didn't think it neccessary for the 3.5" loco you are building.

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 26/10/2014 06:40:06

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 26/10/2014 06:48:20

This talk of tangential tools has lost me .. anyone got a link to a picture?

Further to my earlier posting ... the advice letter arrived this morning ... overnight by 'fast mail' as one would expect and included an advice leaflet saying there is a $46.89 charge for Customs dealing with the matter .. others I have heard at the Club bemoaning this set charrge when their goods were only a bit over the limi.

Customs call it an "import entry fee"  Now I wait for the parcel, with luck tomorrow ... two days to cross the world and ? Auckland to Dunedin .....

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 07/08/2014 07:25:06

Further to Ian SC .... Eric, and Grotto, just remember that the $NZ 400 includes any customs, and MAF costs.

I have always assumed postage or freight too

Then if it comes by a freight/courier company they may add a charge for paying Customs for you ... alternative my current problem is a US Post Office parcel sitting in Customs for over a week now wairting for them to get around to telling me how much GST etc I have to pay .... at least the couriers despite failing to advise me until I chased them up it was only a matter of about five days for me to get it after landing and it was the week before Christmas so I guess they were busy

Side issue with my current problem ... I know their business is letters but one would think outfits even the NZPO would use e-mail rather tha snail mail which apparently these days takes three days for a 'local' letter here in Dunedin as it is sent to Christchurch to be sorted and then comes back LOL

On the thread subject perhaps ... one of the cleverer guys at OMES made himself a 'three tool' holder with tools at 60 degrees rather than the usual 90 degrees .... this was some years ago now ... one of my projects yet to be started

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 06/08/2014 09:18:07

Thankyou for the book suggestion Danny .. have ordered it Have some blunt mills and it was amazing after not doing any milling for awhile how easy the 'new' mill went

Clarkson supplied a booklet with my cutter holder and since I suspect they think you are working with well cooled work/tool I treat the figures with great caution.

As a G Gauger myself with a Roundhouse 'Bertie' I suggest the water is fine so just jump in

Live steam can also be radio controlled in these gauges

LBSC used to make live steam locos in this size and there is also Garden RAIL magazine which used to publish plans when David Joy was editor.

If you visit the Model Rail Forum in the G forum you will find a guy with an extensive indoor scenic layout with numerous  live steam locos ... a Frenchman modelling english countryside I believe .with seemingly a love of vertical boiler'd locos

.http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25709

My problem is that at 82yo I have started two new interests ... T Gauge Railway and learning to fly a Quadcopter along with an Auto- gyro, a bought single rotor and scratchbuilding a twin rotor. ..

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 07/05/2014 09:10:11

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 07/05/2014 09:12:56

My asian Honden lathe came with a four sided holder which swivels on the securing bolt in the crossslide but I was impressed at the usefulness of a three sided holder which a fellow club member made which holds tool out of the way better than the usual four sided holder. But if you only have a lathe it is hard to 'make things' to 'make life easier'. Shades of LBSC with his breadknife hacksaw as child..

I acquired a number of 24 volt DC motors from the salvage/recycling of photocopiers which run well on 12 volt. The older models are better becuase they have less electronics. Lots of wiring in them, too ... a treasure trove for model engineers with rods, belts, cogs and gears galore, not to mention switches too. Unfortunately of less use were the step motors they also had for an electrics illiterate like me

Bred in England and learnt Imperial though using mm as a useful small size, came to NZ and enjoyed the metrification process, joined a Model Engineering Society and learnt about thous and swg, bought an old sewing machine so occasionally do frequent drapery stores .... what does baffle me after owning a an american originated car, a Aussie Holden, the 'funny' american numbering system .... thankfully my most recent cars have been japanese cast offs using metric, so I have a toolbox full of whuitworth and SAE? , good tools last a life time .... and I have been to the lumber yard for a 100x2 bit of timber Then there were the firms who adapted to metrification by not selling whole metric things but imperial sizes converted to metric like 12.7 ... less common now but a problem when you want the proper tapping drill for a metric screw.

How many of you have wives who measure an inch as the thumb knuckle to nail tip?

Just realised I could seal one end of he tube with gladwrap and do the decanting in to my 300ml jug.

I remember my first use of metrics was at school during WWII in Mech Drwg when I 'thought' the millimeter markings a much easier way of measuring drawings than the imperial on the other side ... I guess it relates to I still have ten fingers and ten toes despite my activities of the following years.

I wonder if it was a metrician's plot that the imperial side of theschool ruler was beveled and flopped around whereas the metric side sat flat on the paper

Thankyou all for rushing to solve my problem .. the thing to remember apart from the obvious decanting and filling up a known container ... would work except I have only got as far as cutting the tube and one end .... .. thanks again

Jason that doesn't relate to me as I drink from glass stubbies

The extra zero comes from my fingers inaccuracy and my brain not checking what they had done

I will remember what Steam Geek wrote "The conversion from cubic mm to litres is 10E-6 ( move the decimal point six places to the left )" ... the first bit is above me but the bracketted makes sense

Been using metric for years but always fould up when calculating a volume.

Currently have a boiler 50mm diam and 150mm long

25x25x3.142 x150 gives me 2904562.5

Now the bit that trips me .... converting the cubic mm to litres

Is it 1000x1000x1000? That gives me 0.0029045 which seems awefully small. Judging from my one litre milk bottle it could be about a quarter to a third litre

Boiler for Mamod modification accourding to Aussie boiler regs must not be bigger than one litre.

Side note ...

I know Manods go well as they are but this is a Mamod Garrett

Your help much appreciared.

Where are you?

4/16 sounds vaguely American to me

A good photo of the lathe could help people give you answers..

Excuses! Excuses! ... Nothing but Excuses.

You are supposed to housepipe when watering the garden not when you shoot video ...a worse effort than the interesting barn find. perhaps I could say I have rarely seen a worse effort

People in glasshouses ....

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 13/07/2013 10:45:17

Edited By JC Uknz 1 on 13/07/2013 10:46:44