Hi

[chappersdw]

Hi, my names dave from cambridge

I’m a machinist by trade and use Cnc mills and lathes day in day out. I’m 33 with a young family. I’ve had a interest in making things since very young and now have decided to take on the challenge of building a live steamer. I’m thinking a 5 inch gauge pansy or the d Hewson redrawn version. Had wondered about a sweet pea but changed my mind for something more like a prototype

Sure I’ll have plenty of questions!

[92220]

Welcome to the forum Dave. When you do get going, there will always be someone who can help with suggestions and advice, though your trade will have set you up with machine experience.

Bob.

[chappersdw]

Many thanks for the welcome. I finished drawing the cad files for the frames and buffer beams yesterday to get them laser cut so the ball is rolling

[92220]

Hi Dave.

Good luck with the build. What is it you have finally decided to build? Don't forget to take lots of photos and start a build thread on here, in the General Chat section. If you want to upload photos to the forum, most of us use either Flickr or Imgur. If you are unsure of how to post pics, we can always give you detailed instructions.

Bob.

[barlowworks]

Check out the posting photos thread at the top of the general section. Roger has posted a couple of posts on how to upload pictures from Flickr and Imagr.

Mike

[chappersdw]

Great thanks guys. Yes I need to look into the Flickr setup. My frames are already done. Handy when the brother in law runs a laser department! I’ve gone for a a j reeves design. Not prototype after all.i took a liking to the hermes 0-6-0t so have gone for that. The drawings seem quite clear. I’ve had it cut in 7 1/4 and scaled it to 5 inch gauge and had it cut as well.i liked the idea of having a choice and experimenting with the 5” gauge.My next venture will be either Doug Hewsons GWR 0-6-0 pannier or the pansy once I’ve got the hang of it I just want to get building quick at the moment lol

[Roger]

Hi Dave,
It's great to see younger people getting stuck into this hobby, it tends to be more the preserve of older folk.
There's a lot of scope for detail work since you have access to CNC machines. If you can model it in Fusion360, which is free to hobbyists, then all the better. I'm sure you can find a post processor that would output to your machines.

I'm sure you're already aware that the designs are mostly ancient and all in Imperial measurements. They also use Imperial stock and BA/ME threads. You don't have to be a slave to that if you prefer to work exclusively in Metric like I do. There are equivalent Metric Fine threads for all of the ME sizes and Metric reduced head nuts and bolts available too.

Anyway, don't be a slave to the drawings if you can use Metric sizes. None of it will be to exact scale anyway.

Do start a build thread though, there's a lot of interest here about how people go about making just about anything.

[joanlluch]

Hi Dave, about the metric/imperial choice, I do not know what you are more comfortable with. From my point of view and belonging to a “metric” only culture, what’s surprising to me is that imperial is used at all for anything. The first thing I did when I decided that I wanted to make a locomotive was to order some locomotive plans from Reeves. Before buying, they advised me that the plans were in “inches”. I thought, ok, I know that an “inch” is 25.4 mm, so I suppose I can just convert everything to mm and I will be fine. So I ordered the plans anyway. When the plans arrived I got a major disappointment. I had never heard about fractional dimensions, and the plans were full of them which came as totally unexpected. At this point, it was not any longer a matter of just converting everything to mm. The plans were written in a language that I didn’t understand. I had to learn things such as whether fractions are meant to be multiplied to the integral part of dimensions, or they are referred to just ONE inch and then should be added to the integral part. Well, I now know it’s the latter, but confusing things of the “imperial” system like this were plenty. As said, almost as a foreign language to me.

Joan

[chappersdw]

Cheers for the reply’s guys. Although everything I do is all metric I am fortunate enough to still get the odd imperial bits and bobs thrown in to keep my head in the old game lol. I have most of the imperial taps and dies at work anyway. The drawings are more of a inconvenience being imperial as it slows me down getting machining but gets my maths skills working lol.

Own response to the fusion 360. I have had a look at it but I have a seat for our cad cam at home. Mastercam x5 full 3D version. The only thing it can’t do it simulate assembly’s like I believe fusion can but I’m not too worried. I use master cam day in day out so works well for me

If I was doing a out and out prototype I would use the correct threads but as you guys say I’ll go metric as it will be easier. All the pipe work will still be done as drawn though.

I will start a build thread but just want to get a little bit further in so I have more to start the post with

[Roger]

Mar 11, 2018 6:56:43 GMT chappersdw said:

Cheers for the reply’s guys. Although everything I do is all metric I am fortunate enough to still get the odd imperial bits and bobs thrown in to keep my head in the old game lol. I have most of the imperial taps and dies at work anyway. The drawings are more of a inconvenience being imperial as it slows me down getting machining but gets my maths skills working lol.

Own response to the fusion 360. I have had a look at it but I have a seat for our cad cam at home. Mastercam x5 full 3D version. The only thing it can’t do it simulate assembly’s like I believe fusion can but I’m not too worried. I use master cam day in day out so works well for me

If I was doing a out and out prototype I would use the correct threads but as you guys say I’ll go metric as it will be easier. All the pipe work will still be done as drawn though.

I will start a build thread but just want to get a little bit further in so I have more to start the post with

That's good news about the spare seat for Mastercam. Assemblies are surprisingly useful, but you can work around anything of course.

I'd be surprised in you have the ME taps and dies at work, but I may be wrong. Perhaps they have done some Model Engineering jobs in the past. They are specific to that type of job though, so they aren't commonly found in commercial workshops. They are generally much finer pitches on any given diameter than BSF or BA sizes.

[chappersdw]

We do have a handful of them but they rarely appear on the bench. We inherited them with the company when we bought it

I may draw assemblies later but want to get making the frames 1st itching to get started!