TEA For Two (and a bit)

[Richard08]

With instructions found (what was I thinking when I put them in that box??) a start was made on the actual kit.

Lots of shiny brass and bags of white metal - bearing mind this is two kits worth. Pleased find on the etches this was a Dave Parkins effort originally, so I know it will actually all go together well, meaning any ****-ups are down to me.

The first step is cutting to length and folding of the chassis rails. These are loooong - 397mm. Happily the fold etches are nice and deep, and have gaps to further reduce the necessary force to fold. My old bending bars, though long enough, are problematic. It's very difficult to apply a bending moment without slipping, and forming the U channel isn't really practical as getting the second bend to 90' can't be done as the bars themselves get in the way.

Turning them upside down makes the U shape possible, but the angles on the corners of the benders are quite rounded which makes a nice crisp fold tricky.

It could be done, but this makes it much easier. Although a bit short, by taking the fold in stages, i.e. start at one end folding a bit then move the etch along, re-clamp, fold to match the first then rinse and repeat until 90' is arrived at. All the time avoiding any actual kinks, which would not be good news.

The Hold and Fold tool isn't cheap, but compared to screwing up an expensive kit it's definitely pays for itself.

And there we go. Currently the loft is a disaster-free area.

[Richard08]

One end glued on, it's well and truly stuck which is a relief (me and glue have a long and tempestuous relationship).

One slight problem with this is getting a centre line along the tank for fitting the walkways above and chassis below 'straight'. All four of the tank ends have small holes in them, which as far as I can tell form the instructions don't have any parts that go into them. So, Plan A is put pins in these temporarily and run a bit of string between the two to line things up. It may involve a sort of cradle made out of cardboard as well, but that's a bit vague at the moment.

[Lurch]

One end glued on, it's well and truly stuck which is a relief (me and glue have a long and tempestuous relationship).
One slight problem with this is getting a centre line along the tank for fitting the walkways above and chassis below 'straight'.

Clamp it in something. Set callipers (or similar) to a touch fit round the tube and use in conjunction with a level to find effectively top dead centre of each end.

[Richard08]

I think I might have confused with what I was rambling on about. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words (though not necessarily the truth these days )

So I now have a line to ensure the chassis doesn't get twisted along the tube. Next I could judge where the line 180' round for the walkways should go or I can build and fit the chassis, then draw the line and be sure that the walkway is exactly above the chassis. Needs a stare and ponder. That Ikea shelt unit has proved far more useful for making stuff than it ever was as a wobbly shelf.

[Richard08]

So far so good. Tempting to put a goldfish and some fish tank deco in there...

(fake goldfish, obviously)

[Richard08]

So with the tank done, onwards..... When the time comes to attach things to it the ends at least will have to be primed and the end cap/tube joints cleaned up before hand - the internal reflections in the perspex make me go cross-eyed. The join feels good but I can't see to be sure. So to the chassis. The end, wider, bits that support the bogies are being a tad troublesome. Folding one up, the depth of the buffer beam is too shallow to allow sole bars to fit inside it, tight up to the end. The height is set by two folds at the top of the beam that sit in half-etch slots. It looks like I'll have to cut these and remove about 1mm so the sole bars will fit. The sides of this construction are supposed to fix to four little tags, but doing that leaves the sides at strange angles - I guess I'm going to have to remove them and do it the hard way. There's also a 0.5mm discrepancy in the place the angle at the bottom where it dives down to the buffer beam - either the side piece fits nicely in the angle leaving the bottom of the buffer beam with a 0.5mm to the end of the side or vice versa. And just to top it off, the slots in the cross members, which are angled to allow the side sections to sort of curve the slots are too narrow for the sole bars - and the sloped sides of the cross member slots don't actually make contact with anything to set the angle accurately. There's no mention in the instructions as to how this is supposed to work. I had more or less convinced myself that I was missing something here then I had a look at the spare built chassis that came with the kits. Whoever built this had exactly the same problems, there is considerable bodging - not their fault! I'm at the point where I have to start hacking the etch, yet one false cut and the whole thing won't work. Arrrrgggghhhhh!

The instructions, such as they are, are under the assembly.- best described as 'minimal'.

[Richard08]

So.... well, I've tacked it together. The sides control the step down to the buffer beam, and the depth of the buffer beam is obviously set in stone. Unfortunately that leaves the sole bar 2mm too deep. Even if I cut the sole bar so it will fit inside the buffer beam, there's going to be a huge step when there shouldn't be. Plus with all this faffing, it's near impossible to assemble it without a twist. I'm on the verge of abandoning these kits, this is not fun.

Just to check, I compared the sole bars with those on the spare chassis - as you can see, the kit ones are very much deeper than those on the assembled one - and that's then plus the thickness of the etch that goes on top. What else is not going to fit?. Yeah, I'm done with these kits. No TEA today.

[Phred]

Richard08 wrote:

Yeah, I'm done with these kits. No TEA today.

I bet you're not!
Looking forward to seeing how you solve this one.

[Dad-1]

Richard08,

No more ? Hang on we enjoy watching you escape.
I so admire your working with brass, plastic I do myself !!

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

Richard08,

No more ? Hang on we enjoy watching you escape.
I so admire your working with brass, plastic I do myself !!

Geoff T.

I enjoy figuring stuff out, but when the cure approaches scratch building I'm out - I don't have the tools, skills or indeed the brass to start making new sole bars! Unless I can find some U channel of the correct size there's really no way I can, or perhaps that should be want to, continue. I should perhaps have listened to the alarm bells when the first step is to cut the sole bars to length. Whilst being by no means any kind of kit expert, I did ask myself why they should need to be cut - I've never had to do that before (except for options of course).
Anyhow, the ex milk tank is on the bench now - that 'something missing' feeling with it decided to expose itself at last