A daily updated blog typed by someone with painty hands, oil under his fingernails and the smell of solder in his nostrils who likes making all sort of models and miniatures. And fixing things.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Making the footplate flat
Wary of my experiences trying to rescue the old kit bits, I took a critical look at my Plan B Super D.
In the main, it was very good but I still wasn't happy with the footplate. What should have been a long flat thing was slightly twisted. It's an easy thing to do and the wonkiness was very slight, but still (IMHO) not good enough. However, I reckoned if I could rotate the boiler very slightly around its mounting at the firebox end, all would be well.
A little work with a gas torch released the 100 degree solder but this don't entirely do the job so I cut down with a fine blade along the front face of the 'box and by the time I was 3 or 4mm down, the tube would move.
Before fixing it back in place, I made a jig to hold the footplate perfectly flat. Basically this is a bit of wood with holes drilled in to match the body fixing bolts. The body is fixed to this and construction can continue. And yes, I did check the wood was flat against a mirror first.
I just wish I'd done this a couple of days ago. Never mind, maybe I'll learn for next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment