Ebay Electric.

Something a bit different from my usual type of blog entry. I prefer this blog to feature the 'this is what I'm making' rather than 'this is what I've bought' type of post, except of course when talking about tools, but then tools are important for making stuff with!

I found the subject of this entry when browsing Ebay. Now I have a soft spot for boxy electric locos, and this one caught my eye;

It was described as a 'HOe?? kit built electric loco'. To my eye it looked to be scratchbuilt, to a good standard, rather than kitbuilt, confirmed when it landed in my hands. I put on a bid before leaving for work, the last bid was for £30.02, I bid £31.02 then logged out expecting to be outbid several times. Needless to say I won it, to my suprise as I expected it to reach at least £50.

As can be seen the body is made from styrene, rather heavily braced inside. The chassis is I believe from a Poole era Farish 37 and is a tight fit in the body, being held by friction. The mechanism needed some attention, lubing and wheel cleaning, so out it came. This turned out to be rather difficult, and resulted in some minor but still regrettable damage to the inner frame, note the chip about half way along one side. Before refitting the chassis I filed the sides down, now its still a tight fit but can be removed easily when required. It is quite a noisy runner, the body acting as a sounding box amplifying the noisy motor. But I don't mind, it just adds character.

The bodywork is built to a good standard and hand painted, as is the data panel. To me the loco looks closer to 4mm scale than HO. A lot of thought has evidently gone into putting this loco together, for example both of the pantographs are wired up and could be connected to the motor, and windscreen wipers are fitted. Some TLC is needed, particulary on the combined handrails and footsteps, and the glazing is missing from one of the bodyside windows, but for now I'm just happy to run it along a short length of Peco Silly Track.

The loco looks like its based on a prototype, the bodyshape and grill panels somehow look 'right', but then it could also be a very convincing freelance design. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of European narrow gauge electrics could comment?

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it. I'm not someone who usually buys anything RTR, let alone something that someone else has built, I like my models to be my own work rather than from anothers hand. But I rather like it so for now at least it can stay.

Paul.

A collet chuck for the Unimat SL.

Another piece of tooling for my Unimat SL, this time a genuine Unimat collet chuck. This is used with seperate collets, which are individually sized, to hold milling cutters when the machine is set up as a milling machine, or bar when turning. The collets are ground and clamp the workpiece/cutter far more accurately and securely than a drill chuck or 3 jaw chuck. As they clamp over a larger area there is less chance of marking the surface of the part being held, unlike a 3 jaw chuck which holds the work in 3 relatively small areas.

I found this on Ebay, and managed to get it for the starting price as no-one else had bid on it, unusual as these are usually highly sought after. Must be the post Christmas slump...
Here it is mounted on the headstock;

With the clamping nut removed, showing the ground taper;

The clamping nut has an M20x1.5 thread.
Four collets were included, 3/16", 5mm, 6-7mm (which takes FC3 milling cutters), and a home-made collet which needs final finishing. The collets are of the obsolete E16 type, so only available secondhand although making your own is an option.

I'd read that the more modern ER16 collets will fit, so I bought a cheap 4-5mm one from an Ebay seller (£2.71, including postage, from Hong Kong apparently). On the left is an E16, on the right the cheapo ER16;

Note the larger face diameter of the ER16, and the release groove.
It works in the holder, here it is holding a 5mm drill, note though how the front of the collet is recessed behind the clamping nut which sits further out from the chuck body;

And for comparison here's the same drill mounted in the 5mm E16 collet;

 

So it looks like ER16s can be used, and I'll probably get a few more, but I'll be on the lookout for secondhand E16s. I should point out that this chuck hasn't been used in anger yet.

Paul.

Saltford Simplex rebuild part 3.

Its pretty much finished now. Radiator hoses are .9mm brass rod, as is the front handrail. Re-railing bars are .040" styrene rod. Roof is .020" plasticard. Sandboxes carved from .060" x .125" Plastruct. Here it is prior to painting;

And painted;

The original green paint is rather worn, but somehow I like that, the patina of age showing just how much this loco has been used in its past. The black has been re-touched with Phoenix Precision Dirty Black acrylic. I may give it a coat of matt varnish next time the airbrush is set up, to blend everything together. I'm still unsure whether to replace those windows or not.

Add a couple of plastic skips, a length of Peco Silly Track, a dubious kit built lorry and a toy digger and we could have the beginnings of a layout;

Paul.