I've spent today making a tee-piece for my snifting valve as a place for my Steam Chest Pressure gauge to fit. Hopefully I might learn something about efficiently driving my locomotive.
_____________________________________________________________________________________ 3.5" Britannia "Derek Stokes" (my build) 3.5" William "Jamie" (1/2 built by me) 3.5" Doris (currently undergoing rebuild) 3.5" King (3/4 built by previous owner, being finished) Various Stuart stationary steam engines
not just today a built, but the last 12 months. A battery-powered diesel locomotive for my grandchildren. In the hope that the spark of modelling will spread to one or other of my grandchildren. The locomotive can be operated by radio remote control.
Firstly apologies to 2 forum members who have messaged me and to whom I have not yet replied to as I haven’t logged in on here for about 6 weeks, but do regularly check in to see and read recent posts.
Perhaps amusing to some, and as I have an interest in old locks and keys as some might recall, I had at beginning of June an issue with my front door of modern UPV type having lost the only key when I got home from work late one evening. My workshop activities (such as they were) involved removing the lock from the front door. If what I know now about modern locks, the solution would have been very easy with a screwdriver!
Months of waiting for a new front door and frame passed during which I had fitted a new lock (£12 from Screwfix) and fitted a temporary hardboard panel to the front door after smashing it with a brick to gain entrance and feed the cat Benny etc.
Benny being quite elderly and ill at the time and me being impatient and not wanting to call a locksmith etc.
Anyway, all done 2 months ago with me fitting a new panel to the front door to replace the glass panel I smashed with a brick.
These ‘modern’ doors have quite a different locking arrangement to anything I’ve previously dealt with.
The firm who I ordered the new front door etc from for £800 never supplied etc it, and after waiting 2 months I repaired the original door myself for £62. Quite a bit of unusual workshop time in the process!
(Nothing on the miniature locomotive front to report).
Hi Julian Good to hear from you again, and hoping Benny is OK. Also hoping the firm that you ordered the door from didn't take payment in advance.
For various reasons I hadn't done anything in my workshop for probably a couple of years, but recently have raised the enthusiasm to restart work on Locomotion. i don't know why but I chose to make the grate which in David Piddington's design is a stainless steel fabrication. As designed, the grate bars are 5/16" x 1/8" stainless flat. I don't know if this was an available size when he designed it back in the 1990s, but it certainly isn't now. Not that I could find anyway. No matter, my local steel stockist supplied me with some 12mm x 3mm flat, and I'm beevering away with that.
The original '5 year plan' was to have Locomotion finished in time for the 200th anniversary of the full size original next year (2025) but there is no chance of that now. 'Mission Creep' I think its called.
For some time I’ve had issues with my power feed on my Sieg SX4 mill. Sometimes it would work ok, others it would work once & yet others not at all. Not being into electronics, I asked one of the instro’s at work if he could take a look for me. Eventually he tracked down the the speed control potentiometer on /off switch was faulty. He also found that the way the speed controller works when running slow it dumps a heap of heat thru some resistors…. we decided a fan would be a great idea to help cool it, there is no low voltage available, I found a small 240 volt computer fan on eBay, also got 5 replacement potentiometers…. The freight cost was pretty much the same for 5 as 1! Power feed restored! And the fan which runs all the time reminds me to turn the power off!
Now all I’ve got to do is make a new limit switch box….UV’s down here kill plastic that doesn’t have UV blockers in it! I’ve already replaced the tapping push buttons on the quill
Post by stewartcottle on Nov 11, 2024 13:44:49 GMT
hi all i still have lots of goodies left from dads workshop as we are moving i need to shift them quickly so I am open to offers some may go for free just e mail me at cottle.stewart@gmail.com
I have been helping a workmate with his retirement present, a small horizontal engine. It now runs on air, quite well.
A lot of cosmetic work left such as studs & nuts, a small end pin for the valve rod, oil holes, bringing the exhaust out from under the base, cylinder cladding. But nothing tricky.
It was a simple build other than when I stuffed up the location of the ports, despite using a DRO and edge finder! I had to mill the old ones out and solder in a new port block. This was machined to size and then slipped when I was soldering it in, which is why that part of the cylinder looks like such a mess.
