Paul_L's Connoisseur 4F build

Cheers

And the smoke box .. mmmmmm

Getting there, but working on the cleanup

More of the same tomorrow

Paul

 

Back on the job again

Bit more cleaning up on the smoke box, then on to the boiler.

I un-wrapped the boiler, the first time it's seen the light of since Jim rolled it. The cut out parts 24 the boiler end formers.

The instruction say to use a flat surface - I used my 6 mm steel plate, and a magnet to hold the Nickel Silver former in place.

The boiler is then sprung open and placed over the half etched rim, and aligned up with the center lines

Plenty of flux and a hot iron and let the solder flow and wick under the joint and into the inner edge, this is easy to see on the first end, and is good practice for the second end as you can't see the joint.

Now file the lip to size at both ends.

I'm worried as this went far too easily, and, as paranoia is a way of life, using a 6mm drill and a soldering iron bit to support the boiler between the smoke box and firebox

and on the footlpate

Time for a coffee to celebrate

Paul

 

Yeah..... it all came crashing down again - more later ....... Note to self - READ THE INSTRUCTIONS

Ok while tea was cooking I thought I would solder in the splasher surounds to the footplate.

Just in time for tea.

Gained my brownie points by keeping the boss company watching a couple of movies and walking the dog.

Sat down to watch the news and Match of the day, fell asleep and woke up to the Match of the Day theme tune, unfortunately it was playing during the end credits - should have gone to bed, but no I switched on the soldering iron, and got ready to fit the splasher tops, and that when I noticed I'd mixed up the middle and front splasher surrounds - should have paid more attention to the photo's, when you fit them in the correct positions the firebox fits snuggly between them - oh well I'm getting better at removing parts these days

Then almost a permanent disfigurement - to set the scene, it's now about 12:30am (ish), the only sounds are mutterings in strong unprintable words, reffering to the idiot trying to build this, and..... just as i'm trying to hold the soldering iron in one hand, craft knife in the other to ease off the part, stop the footplate from moving and apply flux, the PC audio springs in to life as that other insomniac Toto calls via Skype - surprised I nearly had to change my underpants , luckily of all the bits that went in all directions the soldering remained in my hand, and the craft knife under the influence of gravity missed everythin bar the floor.

After a bit of a blether, and the remaining surrounds removed - I went to bed.

This morning household chores completed, I refitted the surrounds, and started on the splasher tops
First up the half splashers on the cab front

Then the middle splashers

Test fit of the firebox shows a gap at the bottom on the left hand side

Adjusted

The firebox was tacked into place on the two tabs on the footplate, and the other bits added just to see

Got visitors this afternoon, so will try and do a bit more this evening.

Paul

 

I can't claim all the credit for the finish, a scrub with Jif or is it Cif, using a old tooth brush, a rinse in hot water then 10 mins in the ultrasonic cleaner followed another hot bath.

And I'll soon muckit up when I solder the rest of the firebox inplace - still just tacked in place, I was hoping to do it from the inside, but these are solid ends, may suggest for others to mark out a couple of holes on the smoke box and both firebox end walls to allow a sweated joint to the boiler and cab front.

Nothing done thie evening - now there's a surprise

Paul

 

You may have noticed I haven't fitted the front splashers, to give me more access to tag the boiler to the smokebox in four places - top, bottom and roughly around the splasher location.
Current thinking is if I 3D print the ring it will include the boiler band, so I will solder the boiler / smokebox, cleanup then slide the 3D ring into position and super glue in place. Then solder on the middle boiler band, and once the boiler is attached to the firebox fit the final boiler band to hide any gaps .

At the way this week is going I may get to try this at the weekend.

Paul

 

Finally a trip to B&Q to get some 6mm dia rod - I had been using a dril and a soldering iron tip for mock up.

A bit of work first on the smoke box saddle to get it to sit flat front to back (the wraps protrude beyond the front an rear formers).

The smokebox, boiler and firebox were aligned and the smokebox / boiler tacked in place in three places

Top

and underside either side of the boiler seamed joint

The join was increased in size on the top, then the smokebox / boiler assembly removed and the joint completed

And the cleanup begins - progress so far

As a break from the clean up, I started on designing the lagging joint

Test 1 - I think this may be a little too small. Note the line at 10pm (ish), this is a 0.1mm gap, probably too fine to produce the gap, but will give me a line to cut it the ring dia is too small to allow it to expand



Loaded in to Chitubox and prepped for printing - I have a spare as I'm expecting it to be very brittle and possibly break when removing, if not and its ok then Toto will benefit



If all goes ok it should be ready in 1.5 hours

Back to the clean up

Paul

 

Ok - so I got bored - clean up at a stage I can move on, but ........ so I tried on the Chimney, safety dome and cab roof (3D print is only 80% complete)

Coffee time I think, then maybe the front splashers

Paul

 

Back to the drawing board

I thought I may have issues as Chitubox warned the model was too small, the boiler band part separated part way round.
I will try printing direct to the plate, but that may give issues removing the print off the plate.

However I have placed a bit of the print on to the model to see what it wouls look like

What do you think ?

Paul