MMP Household Coal Handling Plant

[Richard08]

And now for something completely different. I bought this some time ago, but as part of the Cunning Plan for the extra siding the coal agent had to shrink his premises somewhat. Rather than just sell it I reckon it should be fun to make. Here goes

[Richard08]

Having folded up the hopper halves it became apparent that holding things while soldering was going to be problematic. Holding things at right angles comes up quite a lot making wagons (or anything else really) so I decided to address the problem directly - so far I've got away with concocting assorted holding contraptions but it is a pain. There comes a time when investing overtakes struggling... More on this when the postman delivers.

Meanwhile I got on with the grab. The parts of the main bucket, if that's the word, have approximately 3 million rivets and then require bending round to form the shape. Not having any rollers (or indeed being able to find such for sale) I resorted to a staring session (i.e. ok, how can I do this). The rivets have to be punched first meaning that only limited amounts of force can be applied without flattening the aforementioned rivets. Introducing an old vape. This looked about the right diameter (slightly undersize to allow for the brass relaxing after bending) and had the added bonus of being a soft-ish 'rubber' coating. Being non slip made it much easier to hold the part without slipping, and protects the rivets too. When making curved brass bits it's difficult to get the 'ends' to carry on the curve to the end, I solved this using gentle pressure with the vice. And it worked. Every day's a school day (which is why I do this I guess). Postman just walked straight by. Dammit.

[Richard08]

Turned out the postman was revisiting her van to get a pile of plunder for the house...

So, back to the hopper briefly. Shout out to Smart Models for rapid delivery. I found these while looking for right angle holdey things. Yes, they are 3D printed but all (4) are actually 90' (bar 0.5' +/-). The magnets work well without being over the top, giving a good grip/hold. They also work through wooded stirrers which, I hope, will avoid any melting. Obviously they work for just holding things in general. Very pleased

[Richard08]

Since the grab forms a kit in it's own right I figured I might as well finish it before returning to the hopper. The two halves of the grab are now done (not cleaned up yet). Just about everything here is laminated onto the basic 'chassis' - lots of soldering right next to other soldered things. A couple of years ago this would have been a complete mess (and likely to have ended up in the bin), it might not be perfect but I think I'm making progress.

[Richard08]

Next is lifting frame (is that a thing?) bits. I've used full width rods, which will be trimmed off to form hinges on final assembly, to enable putting it together to see if all is well. There's going to be some faffing to get the pulley exactly over the middle of the grab, but everything seems to be generally ok.

[Richard08]

Never has a square been such a welcome sight!

Finishing the grab was... stressful. Even more lots of soldered things right next to other things. Even using electrical solder, 188', 145' and 88' it took a while to get it right! Still, tis done.There's some chains to add when I remember to order them. Some tidying up of the 'hinges' to do.

The bagging shoot is now on the bottom of the hopper, another nice part of the kit.

[Richard08]

The tower is new territory in terms of spindliness. Looked like it would be a nightmare, but was really just time consuming. It goes square when offered up to the hopper, but I haven't got there yet. I still haven't quite got used the size of O gauge scenic things... it seems huge.

[Richard08]

The hopper went on to the tower and the planks fitted. I also put together the scales, another sub-kit that comes with it. A good clean up and then off to join the paint queue. which is getting long but it's too dammed cold for that malarkey.

A fun kit and a change from wagons. More kits needed.

[Richard08]

Well finally it's finished! It's taken ages to get hold of the sack scoop thingie kit, and then make and paint it, but worth it as there's no sack scoop thingie in the kit. The accessories (just plonked in place rather aesthetically placed to gain maximum viewer experience) are going with the hopper itself as a sort of ready made diorama. Includes the crane grab not in the pic, but not the cats - they just strolled into shot as cats are prone to do.

[Phred]

Nice build! All those leftover bits in your Jan 19 post look handy for a scrapyard scene.

[Peterm]

Nice neat work, Richard.

[captrees]

Very good stuff sir,