Among the sundry details to be completed on 'Glaslyn' are the handrails on either side of the doors at the rear of the carriage.
These are quite tricky things to make because they cannot be done by simply bending one piece of wire into shape. The struts that fix the vertical hand rail are positioned a little way in from the ends.
The only way to replicate this is to cast or etch a single piece or to fabricate it. I have done the latter.
Now, those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that me and soldering irons have only recently become acquainted, and making bits like these provides many exciting opportunities to suffer third degree burns.
There is also plenty of scope to muck them up, too. It's vital to make sure that they're all identical and that the struts are all soldered on in the same spots.
Himself had made some in 4mm when completing some of the latest WHR carriages and informed me that they were complete swines to make!
All these considerations led me to one conclusion - I needed a jig.
My solution was to start off by drilling parallel holes into a piece of thin tongue and groove to hold the struts...
Not only would this guarantee I could make each of the handrails identical it would also do most of the holding for me, which is just as well because I definitely don't have asbestos fingers!
Here you can see the wire being offered up to complete the handrail...
A dollop of solder on each of the joints and the job's a good'un. Here are all four now made up...
Here's how they look on the model during a trial fitting..
These are quite tricky things to make because they cannot be done by simply bending one piece of wire into shape. The struts that fix the vertical hand rail are positioned a little way in from the ends.
The only way to replicate this is to cast or etch a single piece or to fabricate it. I have done the latter.
Now, those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that me and soldering irons have only recently become acquainted, and making bits like these provides many exciting opportunities to suffer third degree burns.
There is also plenty of scope to muck them up, too. It's vital to make sure that they're all identical and that the struts are all soldered on in the same spots.
Himself had made some in 4mm when completing some of the latest WHR carriages and informed me that they were complete swines to make!
All these considerations led me to one conclusion - I needed a jig.
My solution was to start off by drilling parallel holes into a piece of thin tongue and groove to hold the struts...
Not only would this guarantee I could make each of the handrails identical it would also do most of the holding for me, which is just as well because I definitely don't have asbestos fingers!
Here you can see the wire being offered up to complete the handrail...
A dollop of solder on each of the joints and the job's a good'un. Here are all four now made up...
Here's how they look on the model during a trial fitting..
No comments:
Post a Comment