Scalefour Forum

Printed circuit board has a core made of a glass fibre/plastic resin composite so when it is being cut you are basically cutting glass which will blunt saws very successfully. I don't do a lot of cutting of this material and normally use a standard hacksaw with the board clamped to a bench top. Use ...

but couldn't do too much to push out the dent. It may be too late now but one solution would be to rest the frame on a piece of flat smooth metal and use the end of a round or square bar and a hammer to push out the dent. The end of the bar needs to be flat and smooth. A piece of wood would also pr...

And here is the signal made from one of these to show the "hollow" corner edges And a brilliant piece of work it is! :D I particularly like the proper forked ends on the operating rods - not that I expected anything less! Having tried to build a few signals in the pas, although noting as ...

Tony Wilkins wrote:Any guesses what this is intended for?

Cutting sheet material of some sort. Card, thin ply, PCB material, thin sheet metal.

Terry Bendall

I don't tend to use any on the big lathe usually only turn brass and nickel silver which don't need it, even steel although it can run hot and could do with a coolant if running it too fast I would agree with not using lubricant when turning steel, although on larger machine and high speeds it is u...

Another suggestion he gave to this lathe novice was to use a smear of tallow (or candle wax) on a centre drill (or any drill) particularly when drilling something like aluminium or white metal which can grab the bit and snap it. Some sort of cutting lubricant is always needed when drilling steel, b...

The ones I am aware of are in colleges and schools, so Scalefour North might well be at risk. It might, but then again it might not. At the moment the venue is confirmed and booked. Unless you have a crystal ball or a time machine none of us will know what will happen in the future. I suggest that ...

I have beaten to it with the link to Hobby Holidays which is where I got mine. Small sizes of Really Useful Boxes are a good if a little expensive solution. Being mean I use margarine tubs and for larger item 2 litre ice cream tubs both with and without lids. It does of course depend on whether such...

and we've developed into something that fits within our range of units and is hopefully of interest to yourselves I would guess that the picture of the thin wire/rod is for illustrative purposes only. otherwise lots of thin bits to stab the hand or even worse enter the eye. My preference for thin w...

Terry, I think I must be missing something here. Surely the cutting geometry is the same as with a front tool post, save that the tool is now inverted? If so, isn't the risk of the tool digging in the same? I thought someone would ask that question! :) I am not sure of why it works - what I do know...

Presumably you could machine up your own extended slide from a suitable piece of steel if the slide which comes with the machine isn't suitable? Given a machine with the capacity to do the job and an operator with the necessary skills, then no reason why not. Or can you buy "universal' longer ...

What are the benefits of parting off from the back of the machine rather than using the standard tool post? One reason for having the parting tool at the rear is that it makes the process easier. Parting off can cause some difficulties with the tool digging into the work when the tool is held in th...

I like the idea of using abrasive cutters in the chuck to make the tool. Not thought of that one before. The paper towel to catch the grit is very sensible. From the pictures it looks like the parting tool is not at 90 degrees to the work which is how I would position it. If my assumption is correct...

In my experience no practical difference. The rivets are designed to fit 0.8mm thick ply so may not be long enough for 1.6mm thick. More ballast is needed.

Terry Bendall

Just got around to looking at this. I had forgotten that West Chiltington was at Scaleforum 1999 and this was one of the layouts last showings before my son bought it and it was updated as described in back in 2007 in Scalefour News 153. We have very few pictures of West Chiltingtonl so it was good ...

My experience of building track and turnouts with etched track bases and copper clad has only been with flat bottom rail. This has mainly been done using the Colin Craig range of track components and some Masokits BR3 type bases (for third rail). They all work well but it is very slow and tedious. A...

mikeh-49395 wrote:I’m wondering whether anyone has converted the rod drive version to P4 and if so, what was involved in the conversion

The one I did was the rod drive version and there were no problems. Proceed as outlined earlier in this thread.

Terry Bendall

I think there was also a Tunny ballast wagon There was indeed. We have lots waiting to be built and I did one some years back. Others I know of which are in the same box waiting to be built, some of which may duplicate Rod's list BR Lamprey BR/SR Crab - I an finishing off a batch of seven of these ...

jim s-w wrote:Modelmaster I think. Fox N gauge for the smaller versions

Thanks Jim

Terry Bendall

So when you want to model a road+rail parcel depot ....

All very nice Jim. What is the source of the transfers please?

Terry Bendall

People get very excited about interlaced timbering but as far as I'm concerned it's just a niusance that's going to slow me down Interlaced sleepers were common on the LBSCR and the model of Plumpton Green, built by Barry Luck features these. Barry's web site gives a very brief description of produ...

I found that 0.8mm drill bits are not all the same diameter, As Ted says, he size of a drill can vary and it will depend on how well the point is ground. In larger sizes, say over 2mm dia. this is easy to see but more of a challenge in the sizes we are discussing here. It would depend on how carefu...

My question would be what is it for and why does it have to be that shape?

Terry Bendall

Sounds like very good progress Paul. It will be good to see the layout at Wells 2021.

Terry Bendall

If I were faced with this and had a 1/3" parallel reamer I would go for it. The problem Paul might be in finding a reamer of that size. I double if such a size exists. A new drill of the correct size should be sufficiently accurate. Surely a shaft at .0307 in a hole at .0312 with a dribble of ...