Test masters

I was just about to glue my 3D printed wheels to the bottom of a box and rashly pour rubber over them, when my inner project manager whispered in my ear and pointed at the risk register. Wrecking the Shapeways wheels would put me back a couple of weeks and $16 in shipping alone! For […]

Vacuum chamber

My first plastic vacuum chamber for evacuating rubber Moldavia never held much pressure. For this attempt, I poked around at the local thrift store and ultimately came away with a pot and a tempered glass lid that will enable me to see what is going on inside. Until I got hold of it, there was […]

First four tyres

The photo above presents the first four Proto:87 tyres to be found among the chips around my lathe. These are the 30″ pilot wheels, and their brass centres need to have spokes cut in before getting soldered into the tyres. They’re not perfect, but every wheel is better than the last, and I think these […]

Wheel Progress

Parts for the first wheel rolled off the lathe this week. The engine truck wheels are only 8 mm in diameter, and have eight spokes. The spokes themselves are only a couple of millimetres long, and so, I have elected to make these wheels in two parts – a tyre and a centre. I actually […]

Unused tools

It’s hard to believe, but I bought this vise at the same garage sale where I got my drill press for fifty bucks fifteen years ago. For a lifetime, the drill press and vise had been part of a piano repair business, but even in 2003 nobody wanted real pianos anymore, and even fewer wanted […]

Momentum

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the worst thing about the great flood of 2018 was that it completely destroyed my momentum. At the end of January, I had finally arrived at a place where I thought I might be able to cut Proto:87 wheels for #622. I had even cleaned the lathe […]

Inspiration for the spaces between

My recollection of August in Ontario is of a landscape weary of the summer’s heat and sun, but desperate to hold on rather than giving in to the autumn that is just around the corner. I remember the seed heads of ochre grass bobbing against my thighs as they launched grasshoppers whose wings flashed briefly […]

Treasure at the Winnipeg Railway Museum

The day after our trip on the Prairie Dog Central, I carved half an hour out of the family vacation to visit the Countess of Dufferin at the Winnipeg Railway Museum. This venerable old engine is the one that I could find that has a mud drum, and she was going to help me with […]

Canada Atlantic Simulator

Last weekend, the kids and I had an opportunity to ride the Prairie Dog Central, near Winnipeg. This superb tourist operation is home to Canada’s oldest locomotive, an 1882 4-4-0. That in itself is remarkable, but the PDC has gone a step further in assembling an authentic early 20th Century train to go with it. […]

Frame pattern for 622

Working fifteen minutes at a go, I’ve finally finished putting together the pattern for the thicker Nickel Silver sheet. I think if I’d been more cunning, I almost could have fit two whole models on there. As it is, there will be plenty of leftover etch and there are doubles of all the riskiest parts. […]