Building Stand

Does anyone know where I can obtain plans for a building stand ,so that I can rotate a 3 1/2" loco easily

Thanks

Never seen any drawings for one, I made mine from 5/8 square mild steel as I had 200 three foot lengths of the stuff, I have seen one somewhere that was made using two scissor jacks with a pivot welded to the top, I remember also seeing a wooden one somewhere, the experts will be able to tell you more I hope.

I recommend the design by Colin Abrey in Model Engineer Vol195 Issue 4253 5th August 2005. I built one to his instructions and it works well. I used mine to build LBSC Doris 3.1/2 gauge Black 5, Bantam Cock is next.

The wooden one at Ally Pally 2019. Sorry, no info to give credit to. Shows you don't have to get complicated.

Now here is one of the best I think. It serves as building and subsequent transport and maintenance seen here at Ally Pally in 2017. Built by Tim in the St Albans club note the pointy bits on the running rails to move it on and off the track. It can also be fired up in the stand for moving to the track where there is no steaming bay. Don't forget to empty the lubricator before turning it upside down over the club's best display cloths.

The loco is clamped around the buffer beams and can be flipped over or even used to store on end in the small shed. One modification I would make if used for building is to have the side rail bolted not welded to move it to other positions.

You could use a £50 Clarke engine stand and bolt a custom fit cradle for your engine to it

Here is my Building Jig made from Aluminium T slot profile section and some bits from the "Left Over/ Come in Handy" box!

The right hand end has a clamp to hold the Loco when rotated, The Loco [Tich in this case] is supported by unscrewing the Buffers and bolting on the angle plates to the Buffer Beam at each end . There is a cutout in the angle plate to clear the Draw Hook

Took an afternoon to put together, The T slot Profiles were left over from a Solar Panel installation! The Upstand ends are some 1/8 " Aluminium Panel from an IBM computer cabinet . The Yellow clamp handle ...a spare for the wood lathe Tail Stock.

Edited By The Novice Engineer on 27/09/2020 16:44:35

A really simple solution is to cut two octagonal pieces of plywood and drill to bolt through the buffer beams.