When you, the eager punter, buy this kit it should come with a boiler that resembles a tube. Lucky you.
For me the boiler arrived as a flat etching, which meant I needed to form it. This is a job I hate since my previous efforts haven’t always been as successful as I would have liked. With only one etch I had to get it right first time as well. No pressure then.
The method usually recommended is to work a heavy metal bar back and forth on the part with it sat on a pad of paper. This will gradually cause it to bend until you get a tube. Me, I get something with the profile of a twenty pence piece. Mr Kaizer tells me that I’m pushing down on the bar too hard, but if I don’t the metal stays flat.
Because of these failings, a couple of years ago I invested in some GW Models rolling bars. These are the proper engineering tool and therefore ought to allow me to roll the metal. Mind you I’m not that clever at using them – perhaps I should have taken metalwork at school instead of computer studies !
At least the metal didn’t need annealing. It’s half etched to give the boiler bands so making it more flexible isn’t a good idea. Since one of the other jobs I’m useless at is soldering metal strip to tubes for boiler bands, this is a good thing too.
I just wish it hadn’t come flat packed.
No comments:
Post a Comment