Hello,
I've just started building a Shadara railway 2-6-4t loco on a Roco chassis. Everything is going okay except I cannot find a dome or chimney to suit. I've a lathe and milling machine so most of the dome and chimney can be turned without a problem, but has anybody experience/give advice on how to make the seat of either where they sit on the smokebox/boiler i.e where the body flairs out.
Many thanks
Andy
I have not tried to do this myself, but I was told that the way to make the flares on chimney / dome was to turn the thing up including the flare at its maximim diameter then use a fly cutter to cut away the bit where the boiler / smokebox sits (i.e. run the fly cutter axis at right angles to the axis of the chimney / dome).
The problem is though that the flare on the real things are very complex curves, so you best bet may be to get as close as possible on the lathe but to form the base using Miliput or a simular filler or even solder.
Andy,
If you have machining facilities there was a neat design in the 2mm Association Magazine for a milling attachment which allowed a ball nose milling cutter to follow the base of a fly-cut chimney to give a near-perfect outline.
If you can mail me off-list as a reminder I'll try to look out the details for you.
Regards,
Chris