Towards an audacious goal

The Railway Modellers’ Meet is coming up in less than two months. I’m actually the chair of the organizing committee, and I should know better than to set myself modelling goals before the meet. Especially if I am also delivering a 2-hour hands-on tutorial on 3D CAD. However, I’m going to put it in writing […]

Drivers on half-axles

Before mounting the drivers on their half-axles, I had to clean up their backs. This is a touchy task due to the Proto:87 flanges, which disappear in a heartbeat and a string of expletives if you’re not paying attention. The best approach was to face only up to the portion of the wheel formed by […]

Drill sharpener

Work is so much easier when your tools are sharp. Sharp tools cut faster and cooler. The lesser effort makes it easier to be precise. I’ve always known this, and yet, it has taken me several years to get around to installing a drill bit sharpener. I think this jig came from Lee Valley Tools, […]

A dark day

It was as I was reaching for the family Optivisor, a device hitherto used only for checking the kids’ hair for lice, merely to verify if I had put a jeweller’s saw blade in the right way around that I finally conceded defeat. It was time to finally admit the termination of youth. There was […]

Approach for spokes

I was beginning to despair this Wednesday as I worried away at a test wheel with files and Dremel. The 304 stainless is about as hard as the first batch of cookies I ever baked. As with those tooth-breakers, I felt I was probably wearing out my tools faster than I was shaping the spokes. […]

622 parts arriving

I arrived home to find a package from Shapeways sitting on the console table in the hall. This is always an exciting moment, so I quickly opened it up to see what the 3D printers had wrought. The boiler weight, truck flexure and ash pan were inside. These are the parts, along with the etching, […]

Split axle proof of concept

Months ago, I set out to look for a source of split axles. I think the ones in #10 came from the EM Gauge Society, but they require modification for the narrower track of Proto:87. As I was Googling, I came across a post on the Scalefour Forum about making them from thin-walled steel tube. […]

Dispensing cut-off oil

When I started cutting steel with my lathe, I used a brush full of oil to lubricate the part. By the end of that first encounter, I was covered in so much oil I was almost drafted for Turkish wrestling. My T-shirt was ruined. Over time, I found that for cutting and facing operations, a […]

Lathe crisis averted

All I wanted was a hole! The next step for the drivers is to make an aluminum collet to hold them while I face their backs, and this was going to start with a hole. I was merrily drilling deep into that cylinder of aluminum, when the drill bit bound and ripped the tailstock spindle […]

Driver blanks for 622

It has taken a week longer than I wanted to turn the drivers for 622. These are made from 303 stainless steel, which I’m fairly convinced is almost the limit for my little Sherline lathe. Certainly, all tools need to be sharp, and shallow cuts are de rigeur. Along the way, I have seen a […]