Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bendy tender sides


Tender sides
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker
This is a first for me when building model locomotives - banana shaped tender sides.

All the half etched components have taken on a distinct curve. There's no reason I can think of that this should happen - the etching process wouldn't set up stresses in the metal and it's not something that I've noticed before when building other brass kits.

Fortunately this isn't a problem. All the parts were quickly flattened with gentle tweaking between finger and thumb. Added to this the tender top is flared which braces things and pulls them into shape. The flare is formed around a small brass rod - the thin metal bends easily enough without the need to anneal it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Phil, There can be surface stresses in the sheet material used for etching, dependant on the grade used, which if not relieved prior to etching can cause curvature of the component, usually only apparent when releived from the fret. Putting them on an electric cooker hob usually does the trick by annealing them.
Peter
('im wot gets bits of brick from Hellingly loco shed)