Well, I’ve not posted much on here for a few weeks, but I took the smoke box door off, soldered it to a mandrel and turned the back edge away until it looked right. It was a buffer to solder back onto the boiler dead square but I think I got it right.
I have added the CSBs to the mogul, which is now sitting on its wheels, more or less level and looking happy.
There’s almost no side play in the front axle, I might have to allow a little more as it does spin but not as freely as I’d like, but not too much so the crank pins don’t clout the cross heads. The rear axle is fine with a little side play and there’s lots on the driving axle.
Next steps will be marking and drilling for pickups. Probably should have done that before assembling the frames but we are where we are.
Then the springs and brakes can go on the frames and that’ll be the underparts done. Need to make a drawbar too. And the coal plate of the tender needs raising to match the loco footplate.
Meanwhile in plastic land, my wagon making experiments continue. Given the very good info that exists for RCH wagons I thought I’d have a go with the Bambu FDM to see what can be achieved and whether it is better than resin.
I think it’s a bit curate’s egg, as it’s good in parts, and certainly tough. For wooden bodied wagons with wooden under frames, it seems very satisfactory though I do continue to have issues with print adhesion.
Anyway, here we have a 16’6, 7plank, 12t 1923 RCH end door coal wagon. Printed in matte PLA using an 0.2 nozzle on an X2D.
Took about 12 hours.
I have discovered is that FDM axle boxes and buffer stocks are feasible but resin ones are much better.
I have turned buffers and Premier couplings and spring both with a transverse wire, Peco style. I need to print some more caps for the buffer stems.
The axle boxes are drilled through 1.9mm and have slotted holes for the bearings. Slaters 7164 springs work well, acting on the printed spring.
The W irons are over scale thickness, but 0.66mm is not daft, and being FDM, they’re resilient.
Surface finish on FDM parts is a question, undoubtedly the resin parts are “crisper” but the enlargement above is cruel, the print lines are not visible without a magnifying glass.
When the bits print correctly, the fits are very good, the solebars clip between the buffer planks and the body clips to the floor
The axle boxes are also clip fit (and this principle will work for Parkside wagon kits too). The buffer stocks & brakes are push fit but a drop of glue won’t go amiss.
Brake handles & guards are another question, they will print on the resin printer and not stupidly over scale thickness but they need a lot of cleaning and they’re fragile. I’m going to try laser cutting them - Model Engineers Laser have been very helpful in the past so I’ll see what they can do. Otherwise it’ll be etching.
Axleboxes clipped into W irons.
Spring on stem of small drill
I don’t have enough hands to take photos of the next bit. Hold solebar upside down, drop spring in, lie down on the outside, use a scalpel tip to compress the spring and drop the axle bearing in. Rinse and repeat on t’other side.
Then you hold one solebar assembly with your prehensile tail, whilst you align the axles and the other solebar, and it clicks nicely together.
And pop the body on…
Ok, there are some details to add, but we have a decent wagon for the price of the wheels, buffers, couplings (transfers) and about a quid.
yes, I know the printer cost 800 quid….
best
Simon
