Giles Favell
I used a pair of printed die blocks to press the wheels onto the axles whilst at the same time quartering them. When the chassis had its rods fitted, the quartering appears to be fine…..
Unfortunately it turned out I did need to widen the cylinders and the motion brackets. I wasn’t much looking forward to this, but it went fine as jobs go. I removed the cylinders, and cut each one off the stretcher using a piercing saw in a square omega shape. This was to provide maximum surface area on three planes when I glued them back on, 1mm further out (each side) using Devcon/Talc mix. After 15 minutes the excess glue was filed off, the cylinder assembly refitted, and Epoxy dripped into the cavity between the back of the cylinder and the frame overlays.
The motion bracket was more dodgy. I broke it getting it out, and thought to repair it by silver soldering it with a wire reinforcement 2mm wider. I couldn’t make out what metal it was – but it was hard, and blunting my files. As it was getting up to heat, the end disappeared into a blob….. they are cast, but in a hard alloy. Fortunately there was enough left simply to clean up and glue into the frame overlays and the end of the slide bars having checked that the cross heads were running freely.
The brake hangers are also going to have to move outboard a fraction, which means re mounting them, and I snapped the pickups, so I will have to fit new ones!
But the chassis is generally looking much better. I’ve not tried it under power yet, I have pushed it throu points which it didn’t notice, so it’s looking good so far.