Connoisseur Macaw B/Bolster C

[Richard08]

Ah, deep joy - it's arrived. Clear the decks (i.e. shove everything to the sides)...

This I am going to enjoy

[Richard08]

So what's on the 'box'?

Nice shiny etches, unsurprisingly.

And bags of white metal, complete with chains and hooks for said chains. A nice inclusion, buying chain and hooks separately would be hassle and not that cheap.

And this is what I like about Connoisseur, it's the little things, together with the kit actually all fitting together, that make me stupidly happy.

[Richard08]

So to step 1; folding up the body. The first step was to mark out the centre lines for various bits and bobs on the underside.

It was only later I wondered if these measurements were for the folded or unfolded ends. Before moving on I'll have to offer up some of the later parts to check - at least I'll not just launch into soldering things on and finding out the potentially hard way...

The sides have a lip at the top that requires folding before the sides and ends. The instructions give a very useful guide as to how to do this without wrecking everything if you don't have the 'right' tools. My approach was to fold the lip with the Hold And Fold and then revert to the bars for the sides. Another way would have been to use scrap brass from the etch soldered together to create a block to offset the Hold And Fold so it could 'reach' over the lip. Might be a bit hairy, but would probably work. The draw back with the bending bars was there being no clamp in the middle (where the vice would be holding things in normal use), I got round this by shifting the floor right up to one end of folder and then using a small G clamp just past the floor at the other end. I then used the whole thing to push down on the glass to fold the side. It worked.

A bit of solder to hold the corners while checking everything is square will be followed by a quick run of solder along the fold lines when I'm certain all is well. So far, so good.

[Dad-1]

Richard you can make me hate my lack of confidence, oh, plus money & space !!
All that nice brass !!!

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

Richard you can make me hate my lack of confidence, oh, plus money & space !!
All that nice brass !!!

Geoff T.

Can't help with the money and space unfortunately, but the confidence.... well it's not confidence, it's more "well no one else is going to do it, so here we go" with side of practice and dressing of "well others have done it so it can't be impossible" bloody-mindedness. That I haven't wrecked anything (so far!) is probably a miracle and/or the result of a lot of staring before giving it a go. The first brass kit I built was a Connoisseur one which have really helpful instructions for those without a fully equipped workshop to hand ("Not got a temperature controlled soldering iron? Use a dimmer switch" level usefulness). The way they are written is very encouraging rather than making it all look impossible if you see what I mean.

[Richard08]

Next was the sole bars, folded up and overlays soldered in. Getting all this brass hot enough to reliably solder the overlays with my 50w Antex iron would be a very slow and frustrating experience, so... Having made sure the overlays fit nicely it was out with the mini clothes pegs (with the ends clipped off so they sit 'inside' the sole bar) and the blunderbuss iron. This iron can heat the whole thing up in seconds and made a ballache job into the work of seconds.

And then a clean up before a bath. That's the long long bits done and stress levels reduced somewhat.

[Richard08]

With the sides cooled sufficiently to take off the asbestos suit it was time to fit the securing rings. Which are loops of straight brass wire (is that different to rod?) wound round a 2.5mm drill bit shank. This relaxed to 2.8mm, so 0.1 over size, ah well. The sort of spring then created was cut down one side and bingo, a bunch of loops. Twist the ends together and a dab of solder on th joint does a nice job. These is then placed in the ends of (supplied) copper slit pins and the split pins crimped up to grip (lightly) the ring with pliers. The pins then go through the appropriate holes, the legs folded 90' to hold them while soldering (checking they are square), the legs chopped off and the solder filed flat. Kept me occupied for a while...

Then the headstocks (nice new shiny word there) and bogie cross-members were folded up, and together with the sides, soldered on.

Still so far so good.

[Phred]

Very neat work on the rings! How did you cut down one side of the 'spring' without bits flying all over?

[Richard08]

Very neat work on the rings! How did you cut down one side of the 'spring' without bits flying all over?

Ha ha, yeah, played that game I held it between three fingers and thumb to make it a non-fragmentation device, then cut with my shears, kind of dolphin nose shaped things that fit inside the 'spring'. Hoping no flesh got in the way. Because that really hurts.

[Dad-1]

What ? No blood yet ?

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

What ? No blood yet ?

Geoff T.

I cannot answer that without tempting fate/deity of choice.

[Phred]

Richard08 wrote:
cut with my shears

OIC. I imagined a Dremel with a cutting disc or something.

[Richard08]

Next, the trusses. These were not easy to fold, basically raking out etch lines with a triangular file, starting the fold with the Hold & Fold and a coffee stirrer, then again using the stirrer and a toffee hammer to finish the fold. Took quite a while, but done eventually without mishap. Then all the bits were soldered on. I had to work through three times making adjustments times get everything square with everything else. Again, time consuming but not difficult.

Phew!

[Richard08]

And so to fitting the handbrakes. The pin strap is very cleverly designed - when folded up and with some solder at the bottom to stiffen it, it actually 'clips' to the sole bar - much easier to solder. The kit has the option of Churchward handbrakes, but I went with BR. The levers might look like they are upside down, but counter-intuitively they are correct (photos).

The next step in the instructions is to fit the stanchions, but these are a bit vulnerable when handling the thing, especially when fitting the buffers/coupling which involves a certain amount of applied violence.

The buffer castings need drilling out to 2.1 and 4.2mm to take the shanks. Not having such sizes, I used 2.0 and 4.5mm, wiggling the 2.0mm one about a bit to get 2.1mm, and the 4.5mm though over-size actually works well. The shanks need quite a bit of dressing up to prevent jamming (I really don't like this type of buffers, but replacements = £). The holes in the headstocks are quite a lot smaller than required and need opening out quite substantially. A needle file will do it, but takes ages. Drilling is fraught - one jam and... kaput. Luckily I picked up a set of, er these things from the Middle Of Lidl. Not only much quicker, but easier to keep the hole round compared to filing.

[Richard08]

A productive day, it must be the threat of Doing The Shopping focusing the mind. The couplings were made up, using Ambis Instanter links and spare MMP plain links (lovely shapes, guvner), all straightforward. The buffers were all made up and checked and checked again that there were no sticking points, and the housings fitted to the headstocks. There followed an animated session of fitting the spring wire in through the couplings and on to the ends of the buffer shanks. Then take it all apart because a couple of the buffers were now jamming. Test. No jamming. Reassemble. Take apart and timp with the shanks. Reassemble. One still jamming. Then the penny dropped. Bend the ends of the spring wire so they are 90' to the buffer shanks, thus 'removing' the sideways, twisting, moment. Bingo. Every day's a school day.

Taken before the penny dropped