Britannia 70047 "Derek Stokes"

[JonL]

I just noticed the jaws on the chuck in that picture are marked 3 twice....

[JonL]

The expansion link bearings were, as predicted, a nightmare to get aligned correctly. I measured thrice with everything, but still went slightly undersize on the bearings to start with to allow me some latitude when I reamed them in place.

One went a lot better than the other; it pivots easily with no tight spots or issues, and seems to be perfectly parallel to the frames. The other has a tight spot which was cause by a slight misalignment of the expansion link pivots, so I had to remove them and redo them on that side. It has improved it considerably but there is still a slight bind at the full extent of its travel. As it won't actually get to this point when installed I think I will call that done. Pictures to follow.

[JonL]

I'm quite proud of these, right up until I take a photo and then they don't look so nice anymore. They need to come apart again yet, hopefully I can get the paint finish a little more glossy!

[mbrown]

Don't worry. My stuff looks dreadful in the photos but much better to the naked eye.

I'm not sure if the camera lies, or the eye deceives itself, but what matters is how it looks "in the flesh (metal)".

Malcolm

[JonL]

Thank you Malcolm. I take two kinds of photos; blurry or highlighting every defect I hadn't previously noticed.



I didn't make the 20p. I fear change.

[keith1500]

Those links have a sweet shape towards the tail pin. Very nicely done.

[JonL]

Jan 8, 2021 21:41:33 GMT keith1500 said:

Those links have a sweet shape towards the tail pin. Very nicely done.

I can't claim credit; they were laser cut. I don't derive any pleasure from hours with the hacksaw and file, so I bought them from Model Engineers Laser. They are provided oversized and you finish them with a file. I've found the best thing is to not interfere with the profile too much!

[keith1500]

Well you have cleaned them up nicely.

I had forgotten about the marvels of Model Engineers Laser. Makes sense to crack on with something you do enjoy.

[andyhigham]

Laser cutting and water jet cutting is the way forward. Sawing and filing has it's place but can quickly make what should be a pleasurable job into a chore. The frame on my race bike was water jet cut, it may have saved me many months. I actually had two sets cut, the first set from MDF to check for fit. Total cost £100
20180422_144055 by Sigma Projects, on Flickr

[mugbuilder]

That's a fearsome looking machine

[David]

It's a shame paint does that sometimes. I bet it all looked a lit tidier beforehand. Still looks good!

[JonL]

Made a silly mistake while machining the radius rods today. Of course it happened at the end of a few hours of careful measuring and cutting. Right at the end I mistook a meniscus of cutting fluid on the part for the line I had scribed in the blue and cut around 1/16 of an inch too deep. The dimension is critical at this point so in to the scrap bin it goes.

Such is life, all I can do is learn from it.

[JonL]

I received the superheater darts today, 4x stainless steel, from the eBay supplier mentioned on another thread. All being well I plan to resume work on the motion in the next few weeks, the errors I made before knocked my confidence a bit. Just need to get back on that horse!

[JonL]

I've cleared the workbench and swapped "Jamie" the William onto the bench, finally using the spit on the locomotive it was designed for. Access is now fantastic to all side, and it's got me quite fired up. I've made an order with GWR fasteners to get some of the outstanding bolts needed to put it all together and then I'll be proceeding. Only one thing... I'm still nervous about the motion work....

In other news since I last seriously looked at this I've commissioned a locomotive so my skills, albeit still very modest, have taken a big leap. Half of the water pump is Junk and I'm horrified at my amateur efforts. I'm surprised at how well I did on start of the motion work machining; the coupling rods are far better made than the ones on William with regards to fit and function, especially as back then I didn't have a mill so the boring work was carried out on the vertical slide.

Time to resume, she has sat around long enough.

[Deleted]

well done Jon, I for one look forward to seeing your progress.. onwards and upward...


Pete

[barlowworks]

I'm still nervous about the motion work....

You and me both, it can definitely eat into the available mojo. You have to just keep at it when its available.

Mike

[Jim]

Am I missing something? All the photos seem to be missing from this thread and I'd love to see what you've done Jon.

Stay safe

Jim

[JonL]

Aug 13, 2021 22:04:27 GMT Jim said:

Am I missing something? All the photos seem to be missing from this thread and I'd love to see what you've done Jon.

Stay safe

Jim

Sadly I used Instagram to host the images by going into the HTML on their web pages and taking the linking data from the images directly, annoyingly they have stopped hotlinking so none of those work now. However the original account with all the images on is on Instagram under the name lbscbritannia and I think you can view them all without having to log in. Sorry about that. If anyone struggles to find them I'll sort a direct link out

[Jim]

Aug 14, 2021 6:48:47 GMT JonL said:

Aug 13, 2021 22:04:27 GMT Jim said:

Am I missing something? All the photos seem to be missing from this thread and I'd love to see what you've done Jon.

Stay safe

Jim

Sadly I used Instagram to host the images by going into the HTML on their web pages and taking the linking data from the images directly, annoyingly they have stopped hotlinking so none of those work now. However the original account with all the images on is on Instagram under the name lbscbritannia and I think you can view them all without having to log in. Sorry about that. If anyone struggles to find them I'll sort a direct link out

Thanks John I'll check out your site. Quite a few of us had a similar problem when Photo Bucket decided to charge for hosting photos.

I now use Imgur.

Jim

[JonL]

I decided to assemble everything I've made so far with regards to motion work, cylinders etc. The cylinders seem ok (aside from some back-of-the-hand-biting spacing of some screws) but I wonder if I originally tapped the holes deep enough. I may end up doing them again.

A lot of it needs redoing properly. For example I found I had used the wrong size screws to mount the cylinders to the frame, so ended up drilling them to the correct size. Luckily it was enough of a jump to leave plenty of meat in the metal for the threads, which went in nicely with some ROCOL.

I can't believe how much on there looks agricultural to me now. Don't forget this wasn't a locomotive I started twenty years ago, its a relatively new one in the grand scale of things. However I'm early enough in the build to be able to improve and redo where required.

I know I keep saying it but things are so much easier with the locomotive on a spit. I wish I'd made one first!