Member postings for Simon Collier

Pat, thanks for taking the time and effort to record your experience here. Very interesting reading. I wonder if you saw the multi part article on home foundry work in Model Engineer a few years back. I can’t remember by whom. Perhaps it was Noel.

Great posts. I love the idea of a home foundry.

Contact MEL and get a quote for drawing into CAD file and cutting. You would supply the drawings. This would not be cheap probably. Or just get on with cutting them out the old fashioned way. There is no good way to cut sheet metal in my experience. I’ve cut 1/16th steel successfully with a jigsaw with appropriate blade. Same with thick brass and copper sheet. Band saw for narrow cuts that will go past the frame, and the hacksaw and sheet saw can be useful. Tin snips for thin stuff. Your club might have a guillotine but I’ve not used one. Laser cutting is certainly very attractive.

No experience but they don’t address the fundamental problem. Instead of large slots for steam ports, use radial holes around the liner which are suitable for rings.

That is my understanding about DY too. Even if you got them to seal, they would start wearing out from day one. This might not matter depending on the intended use for the engine. For regular heavy passenger hauling, you want piston rings. With gunmetal cylinders, Teflon rings can be used and there is a detailed thread on MECH Forum about this. The general belief at my club is that plain bobbins wear and start to blow very quickly. However there was one engine known that sealed perfectly long term, so perhaps the DY method can work if executed perfectly.
Hopefully someone with Don’s magazines might come along.

I just looked up Colisbro. Interesting stuff. Don’t suppose there is any easy way to tell the difference.

Too late, I put the torch on some drill swarf to see what would happen! Outside at least in open air. Thanks for replies, I now have to assume it is BeCu. Bad news for the friend whose superheaters I was going to repair with it as he will now have to go off to Brass&Copper to buy known copper.

I have a bit of 9/16 copper bar of unknown origin that is near impossible to drill or turn. Does copper age harden to this extent? It looks exactly like copper, not phosphor bronze or anything else I know of. I annealed the end and then I could drill it.

Slightly unfair, as ndiy suggested contact above, and having got it out and tested it, it is what I will try next.
Silicone and masking tape (Tamiya is suitable) is a good idea. Fiddly but very doable. Glue failure results in the windows falling into the cab, rather than into the ballast, so it’s worth trying something I have first.
On a related subject, I had a tube of black silicone gasket sealant for 30 years and it finally ran out. I bought a new tube and the whole tube set solid after one use. Why? Not cheap either.

Thanks for your suggestions. I had a look through my glue/sealant collection. The most promising is a clear contact type shoe glue. It doesn’t string too much so I should be able to apply some specs. I am reluctant to buy something special for about the 100 microlitres I need. I had never heard of pinkgrip nor have I ever used hot melt glue.
new frames are not an option. I went to an invitation weekend at another club and a bloke was demonstrating his 3D printer, making novelty objects. I asked him if he wanted a real job and he was quite keen. The next day I went with my design and he printed the frames in suitable brown plastic. On display were two almost finished rebuilt Merchant Navy locos so I was able to indirectly return the favour by giving the builders a stack of the large glass slides for their windows.

My loco’s windows are 3D printed plastic with rebate for the glass, cut from large microscope slides 1 mm thick. Multiple specks of superglue have let go after a couple of months which is about what I expected. I considered silicone but it is stringy and I couldn’t apply small enough blobs. Any recommendations?

Few tracks are dead level and flange friction on curves is a consideration too. I would be sceptical of claims of how many people little engines can pull. My working assumption would be that Tich could pull the driver and Juliet might pull the driver and one or two others. My club track is far from level and it is difficult to get Tich around and keep up steam with just the driver.
what you can build will depend on lathe size, but the first question is what size lathe can you buy/access? A bigger lathe gives you more options but amazing work has been done on small lathes. And of course, big and small are relative terms. To me Myford 7s are small.

There is no such thing as too many questions, especially from a young enthusiast.

I’ve rolled 3 mm copper using large rolls donated to the club. I had to keep annealing it with my 2944 burner. Rolled to 6-1/4” with slight taper. The member who donated them moved away and some time later they vanished. He undonated them! Hardly anyone is going to have rolls big enough. I suggest making a former from stacked plywood disks. With multiple annealings and using hands, hammers and band clamps, it can be done. Buying 5” tube would be so much easier.

Jon there is no point asking loco questions on this forum. If you look at, say, the last 50 latest posts you will see what I mean. MECH Forum is the place for loco people. And the search function there works. Downside is that you can’t directly post images as you can here. That’s a real pain.
A mate has a 3-1/2” Brit and it has a ball valve regulator in the smokebox, I’m almost certain. Ball valve regulators, whether dome or smokebox are very popular in my club.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. Try asking on MECH. Forum where the loco people post these days. Julian Atkins might know or John Baguley.

Simple oiler I made with o-ring that seals over standard Myford nipples. Works perfectly, cost almost nothing.

Engine 143.

I often think young people, constantly at their phones, are a short step away from the Borg.

Quite right br, it is a personal bias and unhelpful to the OP.

I also suggest a Simplex. A capable, good looking loco, powerful but easy to handle, with good valve gear design. Lots of information available and builders groups online. It has a proper locomotive boiler, not that horrible thing on Sweet Pea. Do look on MECH, as suggested above as there is a Simplex thread and much more loco stuff.