7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Higher mammal 1, soldering iron 0 :rant:

I run a ERSA RDS80, pretty much bullet proof and the previous base unit ran almost daily for five years (rough guess 10,000 hrs) so no issues there.

However, the wands are a different story, all of mine have failed (six or seven times) where the cable enters the strain relief boots or in most cases, inside the boot.

It's not hard to cut back, solder and cover with heat shrink and yesterday that's what happened (broken cable), it'd already broken two times in the past. I have a spare wand just in case and tried to take the tip off the broken one to fit to the spare to repair this one. It didn't go well as can be seen.

Upshot, ordered a whole new system and put the old one in the shed for soldering on the train set. Ordered last evening (RS Components) around 17:00, arrived today before 10:00 and we're back in business with a working spare in the shed :thumbs:
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Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
My RDS80 is still going strong, though it never saw the through-put of yours I’m sure. One flaw has been the tip has welded itself on and won’t be budged.

I've been wondering about a replacement hot end, but I don’t think it’ll be worth the expense as I stop commercial building soon.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
My RDS80 failed same as Mick’s. I think I’m on #3 now, one was replaced FOC by RS. Couldnt find the receipt for that or I reckon I’d have had #3 for free too.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
I must have been lucky with mine, accepted I don't use it all day every day like Mick but I've had mine since 2011(ish) and still on the same wand/tip. I rather suspect that like Heather my tip has welded itself on...
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Stage point on the DA 8F, a few more nick nacks to go onto the chassis then upper works. There are some castings missing so I need to obtain those before finally signing off the chassis, but they won;t hold up overall progress.

Normally I'd press on for the rest of the week, but I need to tackle the Gladiator S15 test etch build before Wigan and get as much of that done so David can look it over and give his input for the final stint.

Next week a slightly delayed start (real life woes) to a JLTRT Star to mix into the pot.

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Genghis

Western Thunderer
Next the fun bit: clearances around the valve gear on the Gladiator model are tight. It will be interesting to see how DA addressed the issues.

Dave
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
The chunky balance weights are not going to help either as that'll push the coupling rod boss out a bit; but, there's zero side play on the lead driver so it should all be manageable ;)
 

Genghis

Western Thunderer
The chunky balance weights are not going to help either as that'll push the coupling rod boss out a bit; but, there's zero side play on the lead driver so it should all be manageable ;)
Clearance between the con rod and the second wheel boss and the expansion link is likely to be tight too. No problem for a man like you! :)
 
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