Last year I treated myself to a multi function bench tool, It is a combination set of rollers, press brake folder and guillotine. Unfortunately, to be honest apart from the guillotine, it isn't of great use for railway modelling in scales below 3inch scale. The rollers are too big for rolling boilers and the folder is too hefty for fine work. The rollers however are ok for rolling coach roofs as I have found out today. I spent most of this afternoon assembling it. The instructions are about much use as a chocolate fire guard so finished up ignoring them and muddled through. I'm lucky in as much I have operated machinery in industry very similar to this and understand how they work, I pity anyone buying it to start model engineering. Any way a couple of photos. Cheers for now, Pete.
Nice piece of Kit Pete. it is heavy duty but after shelling out for it ..... I'd be trying to make it pay its way. I have a set of rolling bars which is quite a heavy thing. You clamp them in a vice. once I get the nerve up ..... I'll need to have a bash. I have several loco kits that don't come with pre-rolled boilers so even if I only ever get the use for these ..... it'll be worth it. I bet you'll get use of of it and when you do ...... you'll be glad you took the plunge. cheers toto
Hi Pete, I have one of these too and I agree with you about the instructions.... What I have struggled with is getting the blade set close enough to cut through 10 thou sheet. It's quite happy sheering thicker stuff but 10 thou just bends down between the blade and the anvil rather then cutting. I have tried both brass and nickel without success. There must be a way to take out the play which is allowing it to push the blade away but since I discovered it I haven't had chance to investigate - it's still in store.
When I first put it together the guillotine blade was set too close to the lower bed and I had to reset it. I had two go's at it before I got it to cut thin shim brass. I slackened the 4 allen bolts and pulled the lower bed back slightly and dropped the cutting blade down then pushed the bed until it was snug up against the blade. Holding the lower up against the blade I tightened the two top bolts a bit at a time alternately until solid then tightened the two lower ones after. I then put the shim brass back under and it cut really well. If I am honest it isn't the most well made piece of kit but for the price it's not too bad. The next job I need to do is set the folder blade as at the moment it's set slightly too low and should have a gap between the blade and the anvil around the thickness of a sheet of paper. Cheers, Pete.
Thanks Pete, I did pretty much what you describe so when I get it back I will have another go at it and let you know how I get on.