Member postings for IanT

Andrew,

I attended one of the Southern Feds Boiler Inspector seminars a few years back. They provided guidance 'notes' in this area which I think may be sufficient for your needs. Most boilers are inspected on the basis that they are a "recognised" design (e.g. one that's been published) - and of course they are normally over-spec'd anyway.

If you'd like a copy of the notes, I'll scan them for you (assuming that I can find them). Please PM me.

Regards,

IanT

Made a mental note of the spring tempering method Dave, will try it when the time comes - good idea, thank you.

Lovely casting for the pony truck too.

Regards,

IanT

Hard to give exact purchasing directions - but as general guidance

1. Always buy good quality files - you don't need too many to get going. Good ones will last a long, long time and give you much better results.
2. For my (small) modelling work, I use generally 4" files - both flat and triangular, in medium and fine cuts. I prefer one edge of the 'flat' files to be smooth (e.g. safe). Buy handles that suit the file length and tang
3. A good set of 'Swiss' files will last a lifetime if looked after. My 'Swiss' set are by 'Stubbs' and still giving good service after 30+ years. The smallest flat, taper square and half round seem to get used most.
4. I only use new files on non-ferrous and they don't ever see ferrous use while being used for such
5. I have lots of old files in various conditions for ferrous. Some I just keep in the unlikely case I ever get around to re-cycling them, some are used just on castings and I even have some that can still do good work when required. They are mostly 6-8", all cuts and shapes.
6. All (even my rubbish files) are kept in racks, so they don't bang together.
7. Personally, I don't use wire file brushes or cards. I do have several chisel shaped brass 'scrapers' to clean debris out, working with the line of teeth.

That's about all I can tell you. I still can't file as well as I can machine things and probably never will but sometimes you have no real choice but to file something and then it's much better to have a good quality tool to do it with.

Regards,

IanT

Coming along Dave

Regards,

IanT

Neither had Michael - but I found this summary more useful than much of the stuff on YT.

bCNC - Product description

I also noted that they are recommending going to a 32bit GRBL (not Arduino) - which I had already looked at a little - at least a version that runs on the (infamous) STM32 based "Blue Pill" - of which I already have several ( they used to be about £2 each).

Most of the bCNC videos on YT seem to be focused on PCB production but it seems capable of much more. Of course, I'd need a CNC machine first...

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 13/01/2021 17:20:50

OK - you will be able to find it at the bottom of this page. Been a bit cheeky and used the G3S website.

It will be there for a few days - or until I do the next update....

G3 Society - Downloads

Regards,

IanT

Sorry about that - I normally test my my links but obviously not this morning.

I don't seem to be able to post PDFs here - so I'll see if I can find an alternative...

Regards,

IanT

For anyone interested in the 'Shapemaster' - someone on one of the shaper groups found this link, which gives more detail of the specification. It has some unusual table tilting features but having no 'knee' may be a little limited in cutter height adjustment/clearance.

Introducing the Shapemaster

Regards,

IanT

"the same as Cherry's, but nowhere as good."

Very few peoples are... including mine!

IanT

Always good to see a 2.5" engine getting restored Dave. I'm sure you've already found this but the B&O Museum has this reference:

B&O Museum - No 5300

No 5300 Photos

Regards,

IanT

Went to have a peek at the Newey (pricey but I guess it depends on it's condition) - and spotted this smaller machine

Shapemaster - eBay

Not heard of them before. It appears they were made by an American company (Young Engineering Labs) based in St Paul (Minn) - but the seller is here in the UK.

As always - Caveat Emptor!

Regards,

IanT

When I joined the Gauge '3' Society, there were no RTR engines and very few wagon kits. It was a 'scratch builders' scale and very much based on large live steam engines (often LBSC designs) - so you either built your own engine, purchased second-user or commissioned one (and waited two-three years for delivery).

These days we have a very wide range of ready to run engines in both live steam and battery electric, kits to build the same (Barrett Live Steam Models J65 is now available in G3) but 'scratch-building' is still very much a part of our Members activities. Many of these members are also members of the N2.5GA - and run their locomotives in 'Driver Hauling' mode at their Rallies as well as at Society GTGs.

But quite apart from G3 Live Steam engines there are also some very nice models being built from a more traditional Railway Modeller perspective. G3 is very good when modelling early Victorian Railways for instance, because they were quite small locomotives and lend themselves to detailing, which G3 enables. But we do seem to be attracting some very good 'scale' modellers from the smaller gauges too. Good examples of both can be found on Western Thunder - but I like this GWR Saddle Tank as an example of the fine work folk are doing in G3 these days.

GWR Saddle Tank in G3

For myself, I own a 'vintage' coal-fired G3 GNR Atlantic (so I guess that counts as RTR) but everything else has been (or hopefully will) scratch built. Whether I will ever finish my main 'G3' project ('Hyperion' - LNER 3-cylinder A3 Pacific) remains to be seen - I do some work, re-do it, go away (and do something else) and then come back again. So whilst I'm not the best model engineer in the Society (or the most productive one by a long chalk) I'm afraid - scratch building both live steam and other models in Gauge 3 is still very much alive and well.

Although you could also just buy a Kingscale 'Britannia' instead I guess!

Regards,

IanT

Gauge & Scale is a somewhat complicated area in the US (even more so than over here).

Many N/G railroads in the US were 3ft gauge, so when running on 45mm track, the correct scale is 1:20.3 also described as Fn3 by companies such as Accucraft. But there are (were) companies producing 1:24 (e.g. 1/2" ) scale products but the connection between scale and gauge was/is often very loose. In the US "G-Scale" and "G-Gauge" tend to get used to mean different things, the only commonality being the 45mm gauge.

In Europe, "G-Scale" generally means a scale of 1:22.5 on 45mm track - which is what LGB used to model their metre-gauge N/G railways. In Germany, the Spur II standards all use a scale of 1:22.5 but on four different gauges to represent Standard gauge ( Spur II - 64mm), Metre gauge (Spur IIm - 45mm ) and "Feldbahn" on 32mm and smaller gauges. Perhaps strangely, there was a small German manufacturer of US-prototype engines and stock called Magnus but I'm not sure if they were Gauge '3' or Spur II - the two being nearly the same but not identical (63.5mm vs 64mm track gauge and 1:22.6 vs 1:22.5 scale).

Regards,

IanT

P.S. I should have mentioned that whilst there is quite a lot of old 1/2" scale stock still around here in UK (and being run) the scale for 2.5" gauge started to change to 17/32" between the wars and that is the norm these days (or 13.5mm in metric - a scale ratio of 1:22.6 if using CAD).

Regards,

IanT

Victor Shattock was born in Devon, emigrating to Calgary before relocating his family to California.

His American standard gauge (spirit-fired) steam engines were scratch built at 1/2" scale to run on 2.5" gauge track (e.g. same as pre-War Gauge 3) and his railroad was set-up indoors in the basement. The details are given here - and there are links to some old black & white movies on YouTube that are very interesting.

Victor Shattock - Gauge 3 in the USA

Brainspark - As far as I'm aware, there are no modern drawings (or castings) for US style G3 engines available at the moment. LBSC did produce some US 'style' designs for 2.5" in the early 1930's - some details can be found in the N2.5GA "Overseas designs" but they may not really suit your needs. See: N2.5GA Designs

However, in G3 it is quite possible to fabricate the parts rather than use castings but the designs may be more of a problem. I don't know what is available in the US apart from Kozo Hiraoka's engines (the Pennsy A3 might be a good start and could be scaled down).

Regards,

IanT

Here's another example - a support 'saddle' for a DC motor.

I've printed several versions of these - a good example of something that can be simply done with 3D print - that would probably be more time consuming using other methods...

//
// Sadddle for DC (Drill) Motor
// IanT
//
BL = 107 ; // Base Length
BW = 60 ; // Base Width
BD = 20 ; // Base Depth
ML = 107 ; // Motor Length
MR = 39 ; // Motor Radius
HD = 25 ; // Hole Depth
HR = 3.1 ; // Hole Radius (Clearance)
D1 = 20 ; // First Hole Distance
D2 = 70 ; // Second hole Distance
//
difference () {
translate ([0, -(BW/2), 0])
cube ([BL, BW, BD]) ;
translate ([0, 0, (MR + 6)])
rotate ([0, 90, 0])
cylinder ( ML, MR, MR) ;
translate ([D1, 0 ,0 ])
cylinder ( HD, HR, HR) ;
translate ([D2, 0, 0])
cylinder ( HD, HR, HR) ;
}

And the end result...

Regards,

IanT

I had the same concerns Howard - but a friend of mine suggested that I try Open SCAD "to get me going" and that's what I did. I am now working with Solid Edge 2020 but I still find SCAD to be a very good way to design simple (but useful) objects for 3D printing. I try to make them quite flexible by defining key dimensions as variables - such that they can be simply changed to print essentially the same shape for a different use.

At first glance, Open SCAD programmes look quite intimidating but they are really very simple combinations of basic shapes. There was some discussion about 3D printed "T-Slot blanks" not so long ago - and I published an Open SCAD programme to generate them. Here it is again.

It's very simple really (I'm not a programming Guru !) and can be altered to suit any T-slot size...

//
//
// T-Slot Filler - IanT
//
L = 75; // T-Slot Length
HR = 1.5; // Hole Radius
BW = 14; // Bottom (of Slot) Width
TW = 8; // Top (of Slot) Width
BH = 4; // Bottom (of Slot) Height
TH = 9; // Top (of Slot) Height
//
//
difference () {
union () {
cube ([L,BW,BH], center=false);
translate ([0,(BW/2-TW/2),0])
cube ([L,TW,TH]); }
translate ([L/2,BW/2,0])
cylinder (TH,HR,HR);
}

And the object it creates...

Open SCAD is a very easy transition into 3D Printing - and is much easier to learn in small (but useful) steps than a full blown 3D CAD system in my view. It's free to download and I was printing my first 3D designs the same evening - and if I can do that, so can you.

Regards,

IanT

I've watched quite a few but got a little frustrated, that when they came to an "interesting" bit (like some lathe or bench work) the producers seem to quickly jump away to the next project, only returning later when all the good stuff is finished. Unfortunately, the truth is that most viewers are watching for the human-story side of the series and not the workshop bit.

However, I've long list of interesting folk on YouTube now and that's where I spend my viewing (TV) time, apart from a few things the wife saves for me (mostly heritage railways and country walks). Otherwise, she loves her Nordic Murders and as I've a good set of head phones (and a lap-top) we can spend a cold Winters evening watching TV together - albeit different programmes usually.

Regards,

IanT

I did look into this further the other day and was reassured - at least from the point of view of someone below the VAT threshold selling within the UK . This covers it....from eBay's UK site

"In practice, the following three situations will normally trigger mandatory VAT registration:

1. If you are an EU established seller and your business is trading over the legal thresholds defined by your home country you must ensure that you are registered for VAT. The thresholds vary between EU countries and are currently anything from 0 EUR in Spain to 85,000 GBP in UK. In practice, this means that you must register for VAT immediately if you are a Spanish business (no minimum threshold), whereas you are required to register for VAT as an UK seller only after you have made over 85,000 GBP sales within 12 consecutive months.
2. If you are selling goods that are warehoused/pre-deployed in any other country than your home country, then you must register for VAT immediately in the EU country where your goods are located. There is no minimal threshold and this rule also applies for sellers from outside of the EU with inventory pre-deployed in the EU.
3. If you sell a lot of goods located in one EU country to private buyers in another EU country (distance selling), you may also be required to register for and collect VAT in the country of your buyer if you exceed specific thresholds for that country. These range from 26,135 EUR for distance sales to Romania to 100,000 EUR for Germany. Note that in July 2021, the EU distance selling rules will align and businesses selling more than EUR 10,000 EUR cross border will need to collect VAT based on the delivery country. "

As Dave says - we are likely going to be paying VAT on those 'grey' imports in future - and UK VAT registered companies will have to give their VAT registration number to eBay - whereas private sellers will not - and this is what will drive any VAT charges. Seems that it's just coming here 6 months before the EU does it in July.

Regards,

IanT

I purchased a Sovol S01 too David, about a year ago now and I'm very happy with it. I did some research at the time and the Solvol came with a number of 'features' as standard - that were "add-on" (additional cost) accessories on other 3D printers.

From memory they were a better quality PSU, tempered glass bed plate, uprated bed springs & adjusters, a powered filament feed on the head (e.g. not Bowden feed), twin Z-axis leadscrews (and steppers) - all virtually pre-built (very little assembly required) and not much more in cost than more basic printers from other vendors.

As NDIY says, everything moves apace these days and there will be newer models around now but I would certainly recommend a Sovol S01 or anything with a similar spec (e.g. Creality CR6).

Regards,

IanT