RSU day, August 15th

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Timara Easter
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RSU day, August 15th

Postby Timara Easter » Tue Jul 21, 2015 2:29 pm

The Chilterns Area Group will be holding an RSU Day on Saturday 15th August, in Stevenage. A handful places are available. Light refreshments will be provided.

The objects of the day are:
(1) to encourage owners of resistance soldering units to make good use of them
(2) to exchange hints and tips
(3) to offer hands-on experience

Facilitators will be myself and Chris Foren, both of whom are still learning the possibilities that an RSU offers. Those attending are invited to bring their own RSUs but this is not compulsory. Various bits of (learned) literature will be on hand for anyone who wishes to read them.

Please contact me either at chilterns@scalefour.org or by PM if you would like to join in and indeed get directions to where we're holding the above.

Cheers,
Tim

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Paul Willis
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Re: RSU day, August 15th

Postby Paul Willis » Mon Aug 17, 2015 7:13 am

Tim Easter wrote:The Chilterns Area Group will be holding an RSU Day on Saturday 15th August, in Stevenage.


And indeed it was... I dropped in for a couple of hours on Saturday to see the goings on at this joint EMGS/Scalefour meeting.

There were five in attendance, in various stages of activity. Tim was deep in components for his Bradwell N2 chassis, and delighted in showing off the complexity of the kit design and how it went together. I must say that it seems to be a joy to build, with some clever design features that backed up the impressions given by other Bradwell locomotives being built in various threads on here. A note that I took away in case I ever need it in future is the etching of numbers on the tags that solder to the axleboxes. What a clever way to ensure they are not mixed up in location whilst building the kit...

ChrisF was undoubtedly being the most productive with a multitude of excuses being deployed for the day, having brought along several different projects and doing very well at explaining why he couldn't do much on any of them (wrong size of wire, didn't have the right bits with the kit, snow on the soldering iron, whatever...). Thanks are due to him though for having a Hold And Fold to hand with which I was able to do a quick demonstration of how to bend the solebars up in kits.

And there were three EMGS members: John Turner, Geoff Latham and Dennis Stephens. When I arrived they were contemplating Tim's wizardry with his RSU and doing nothing themselves. I wasn't going to have any of that!

It turned out that John had owned an RSU for around twenty years but had never actually fired it up to use it. So we were going to change that! Rather than spending lots of time scraping the rust off John's mild steel RSU baseplate, I showed him how using some kitchen foil wrapped around it and held securely in place would work equally well, and when it became torn or dirty it could simply be removed and replaced. No cleaning required... Ordinary tin foil was all that was to hand, but turkey foil which is thicker and tougher is even better as it is less likely to tear in use.

I handed out copious quantities of scrap brass sheet as offcuts from 5522 etches for John and Geoff to practice with. They soon had the hang of applying a little solder cream, positioning the brass strips, applying the probe, on/off with the foot-switch and watching for the solder to just flow slightly out to show that the joint was made. They were amazed at how little cleaning up was required afterwards. And they delighted themselves by testing each other's joint to destruction point. By the time that I had to leave, they were happily experimenting with the different settings possible on an RSU.

Overall the day looked to be very enjoyable for all concerned. Here are a couple of photos of the workers in action - Chris seems to have avoided being at his workplace and skulked out of camera-shot!

IMG_1703 (Large).JPG


IMG_1710 (Large).JPG


It struck me that with three very definite armchair modellers, what the group is crying out for is a general soldering workshop. Bring your own iron and unmade kit being compulsory! A further thought for Tim perhaps?

Cheers
Flymo
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chrisf

Re: RSU day, August 15th

Postby chrisf » Tue Aug 18, 2015 5:11 am

Many thanks to Flymo for joining us on Saturday and his very useful contributions to the day. Other thanks go to Alan for lending us his conservatory and providing refreshments and, of course, to Dennis, Geoff and John [Hutchins, not Turner] for taking part. We went on well after the projected closing time and not just because 'I am so slow and disorganised! The aim of the day was to raise awareness of the RSU and just what it can do and in that I reckon we succeeded.

It is opportune to mention that the Group meets on the third Wednesday of each month, normally in the Red Cow, Westfield Road, Harpenden, from 7.30 pm. The catchment area of the Group is deliberately loosely defined: defying geography, at present it appears to embrace Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northants. Strictly speaking there are two groups, one from each Society, which happen to meet at the same time and place. What the pub landlady would have said if we had descended on her with three RSUs and related stuff is best left to the imagination but I'm guessing that the word 'no' would not have been far from her lips!

Chris

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Paul Townsend
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Re: RSU day, August 15th

Postby Paul Townsend » Tue Aug 18, 2015 6:42 am

chrisf wrote: What the pub landlady would have said if we had descended on her with three RSUs and related stuff is best left to the imagination but I'm guessing that the word 'no' would not have been far from her lips!

Chris

The Bristol area Group of MERG held a full day workshop in a local pub, soldering irons galore....in the skittle alley and free if we used the bar....that was not a problem!

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Re: RSU day, August 15th

Postby Timara Easter » Tue Aug 18, 2015 1:22 pm

Thankyou so much for coming along, Paul. I felt it went reasonably well too and certainly helped dispel the myth that an RSU is some scary piece of expensive kit that you might hardly ever use.

The upshot of the day is that the aforementioned N2 chassis now has all three axles in place and rolls beautifully. I suppose I really ought to get a thread started for it on here, but that is on the list of many things to do...

Flymo748 wrote: A note that I took away in case I ever need it in future is the etching of numbers on the tags that solder to the axleboxes. What a clever way to ensure they are not mixed up in location whilst building the kit...


Yes, I'd agree with that! Knowing which way was "up" was another plus. It's a fiddly design for the axlebox area anyway, especially when things go "ping" when you least want them to.....

Flymo748 wrote:It struck me that with three very definite armchair modellers, what the group is crying out for is a general soldering workshop. Bring your own iron and unmade kit being compulsory! A further thought for Tim perhaps?


Definitely! Another item for discussion on Wednesday..... :)

Paul Townsend wrote:
chrisf wrote: What the pub landlady would have said if we had descended on her with three RSUs and related stuff is best left to the imagination but I'm guessing that the word 'no' would not have been far from her lips!

Chris

The Bristol area Group of MERG held a full day workshop in a local pub, soldering irons galore....in the skittle alley and free if we used the bar....that was not a problem!


Now there's a thought.....! I suppose it's worth an ask tomorrow night :idea:

Cheers,
Tim


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