How I laughed...

Oh the joy of it all, the excitement,the anticipation, the.....Having to remove the eccentrics that I've just spent 2 bloody hours fitting because they're fouling against the pipe from the boiler to the steam head, off it all comes again to cut down the coupling and re-fit <<Picture of me just now.. Okay, bit more like this >>
By the way, thanks Steve for the gear, came yesterday, good ole posty service just left it on the doorstep but it's a MUCH better fit ta...

LilyJack

Its good to see you are enjoying yourself.

Oh god yeah, it's all laughs and good ole fashioned belly chuckles, especially when you go to fit the reversing lever and look at how the linkages to the stephensons valve timing foul against the bosy work so have had to remove that and file chamfers in the linkages etc so that there's NO fouling now, jobs a good un
I'll stick some pics up of where I'm at some time, am basically at the valve timing stage....

Regards

LilyJack

Hi
Looking forwards to the pics sounds like you had some fun then good luck

Lilyjack

You'll be in hysterics when you go to fit the water pump and find you need a small child to get the bolts in the bottom bracket of the water pump and then realise that you haven't connected the 2 down pipes to the water tank. Oh deep joy! and even better when you fit it all and realise you have the pick up pipe inside the tender coming off the wrong connector. Oh how I laughed over the next few weeks whilst I took it all apart

Al

Hi there Big Al,

God yeah I remember when you posted about the two pump feed pipes hehehe. I cheated with a few things, namely those poxy screws holding the water pump on, I cut down some s/s capheads and used a short reach allen key, also trying to fit that tubeplate plug, WITH A SOCKET?? Ya havin a larf aint ya!!!!! I drilled into the centre using a 4mm drill then whacked an allen key into the hole to cut the hex shape, went in a piece of cake with an allen key after that,am just scootin down the workshop again now to get on with kits 23&24, hopefully I MIGHT be smoking her up soon..

Take it easy

LilyJack

ps : My gear change assembly parts are questionable, it all works now but sheesh there was a lot of filing and dremmeling to do to make it all go together, namely the 1st an 2ng gear spurs were a donkeys mile out from the bracket holes so putting that 4mm bar through just wasnt happening, ended up reaming out slightly so I had a little "give" in there but will ring steve about this coz I'm not happy at all with the fit, the two little back lugs on the gear selectors dont even reach the bracket when according to the picture, they're supposed to REST on it, buggered if mine does, it's like they're about 5mm to short but as said, it all works now, just not happy with how it's worked out, anyways, time to get on with it.....

I was very happy with the standard of the fabricated parts, the welder did a good job, but, being an old style fitter and turner, some of the machining left a lot to be desired. Some of the machined finishes were crap too. Spin the gears and watch the teeth go up and down as they go round, some do not run true to the bore. I put mine in a chuck with 3 ball bearings between the chuck jaws and the teeth and one part was 30 thou out of true with the bore. Had to machine it out and fit a bush and re machine it. This is why the dears did not mesh properly and had a tight spot. The diff lock was a fiddly job and needed a lot of TLC. This is why I do not have faith in CNC machines despite the glory they are given. Despite this, the kits have saved me a lot of time doing it all by myself and most of the kits were of a high standard. I would recomend the kits again but not to someone who thought it was going to be easy and had no engineering nous. You just have to keep at it. I am still painting mine ready to be put back together again.