Its a frame up

No picture yet, but that abra file has worked wonders and I now have a set of what timber folk would call "rough hewn" frames for the deWinton - ans two end plates.

I am amazed at how easy the abra file blade cuts through the metal, and being a circular section you can change direction at any time. The only limitation I found was that the hacksaw frame was too shallow when I was sawing towards the middle of the piece, so I had to saw with the frame not parallel to the cut some of the time.

The next step is put a curved bit in the centre of each one to accommodate the boiler - and so long as that goes well I can file the shaping smooth and get on with joining all the bits up.

More news and pictures soon.

The first cut.... Abrafiles to the rescue

So how do you cut out shapes out of thicker metal? Having been used to 7mm scale where a piercing saw suffices, 16mm needed a rather more substantial solution:

It took a while to track these down, but Reeves2000 sell Abrafile - or radial - file "blades" which are a bit like tile cutting saw blades but thinner, and fit into a standard hacksaw frame using a pair of special adaptors. You can buy these if you can find them, but I cobbled a couple out of some scrap strip.







Here we see the first cuts into the frames of my de Winton. These are 2 1/16" strips bolted together, the left hand cutout was started by a piercing saw and is a bit wayward but the second cut is much smoother and it is so much faster than using a piercing saw. A further bonus is that the blades are much stronger - I'm still on my first.....








Another closer view: This also illustrates well the old dictum: Measure twice, measure again, check it and then cut - I almost forgot where I was measuring from - several weeks having elapsed since I started this piece - felt tip lines are easy to remove but not saw cuts!










And this fuzzy affair is the reversing lever stand - my first tapping job too:























More to come soon.

2007 - First Train of the Year!

How nice to have a chance to run trains again after a manic but very enjoyable Festive season!

















After spending over an hour excavating the track from beneath the leaves, twigs and cat poo, Jesty was able to spend a pleasant session trundling around with short train of recalcitrant rolling stock!

















The latest camera revealed this interesting version of on the level! I'll have to sort this one out pdq - it's where the new track joins up with the old loop behind a conifer.