Hello All,
This is my first post when I am not actually simply asking a question - so all under my own steam!
I took advantage of Merseyside & SW Lancs's recent release of a Bagnall 0-4-0ST as used on the Wolverton & Stoney Stratford Tramway. This had, as a joint manager, a man locally known as Louis Clovis, a civil engineer. Only on his death was it revealed that he was Prince Louis Clovis Bonaparte (grand nephew I think) of the Napoleon. The Napoleonic Wars were still in living memory at this time.
So, thanks to Stan Williams and the team one 3D print and a Kato 109 arrived very nicely packaged. Having followed the link Stan had forwarded, I found a couple of photos of the original. One was a detailed side-shot of the beast-ling. So then I got thinking about modding the 3D print to include some of the details and before I knew what was happening I was side-tracked.
I have tried to create some of the features in brass and/or plasticard and learnt a lot about drilling into and gluing onto 3D prints - this was my first go. The items on display in the photos are not fixed and barely held in place by Blutack. I will not add the items until it is painted. I note the centre handrail knob needs easing. There is a lone and drunken cab handrail - there will be 4 - all soberish. I added a beading around the coal bunkers to soften the hard edge. What was printed as a "D" shaped hole near the steps, I believe from the photo, to be a round hole to access the rear sander. So I made it round like the photo. Everything is by eye - don't do measurments very well. I have a list of .1mm increments against scale inches which is real boon in getting a sense of things in real terms.
The bell was turned on my Sherline lathe which hasn't been used in many years. Sadly, my reading glasses are inadequate to see what I am doing and the Optivisor will not fit under the heavy duty eye goggles. So, I think the Sherline will have to go. I may turn some spectacles in brass as this must be done by co-ordinates rather than eye. I note the bell is more Tyrolean than handbell. Perhaps a Napoleonic family holiday gift picked up whilst crossing the Alps.
Also in shot is my small bench in the sky. I have degeneration in my neck and need to sit up or get the headaches from hell. I cut a piece out of my cutting mat and glued it to a block of wood, this fits in one of those aluminium, all angles vices. Now, everything is at mid-chest height and also far easier to see. It is surprising just how much can be made on such a small area.
Lawrence
Lawrence you have done a very good job on the bell. I like it. Sherline make good lathes. I have one too. It's in metric.
Robin.
Nice work Lawrence!
With respect to the Shearline and eyesight issues I wonder if one of the free-standing magnifiers - something like these on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magnifying-Glass-Light-Stand/s?k=Magnifying+Glass+with+Light+and+Stand)- might be of use as it should combine magnification with a physical barrier to swarf from turning parts on the lathe?
I'm not so sure that the flexible ones will work so well but the 'anglepoise' type might be better...
I am sure you have attended to it already, but something that helps a lot is ample lighting and by ample I mean a lot more than one would normally have in a well lit room. One of the unfortunate things about aging eyesight is the lack of accommodation, the ability to focus over a range of distances. Bright light closes down the pupils much like a high f-number on a camera. Working in poor light makes the eyes work a lot harder trying to focus over a very shallow depth of field.
I'm wondering for me if protective prescription eyeglasses might be useful, e.g.
https://safetyprotectionglasses.com/product-category/safety-glasses/prescription-safety-glasses/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8J6dRWCBLcwnOk1QZ1OhLsQpWYd_fGGRa-1uo8HdQochJe-5DwWG_8aAmeZEALw_wcB (https://safetyprotectionglasses.com/product-category/safety-glasses/prescription-safety-glasses/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8J6dRWCBLcwnOk1QZ1OhLsQpWYd_fGGRa-1uo8HdQochJe-5DwWG_8aAmeZEALw_wcB)
There are times when working outside in the garden that they would be very useful . I seem to have a habit of not seeing branches just out of my eyeline and poke myself in the side of the eye.
Years ago my employer did pay for prescription safety glasses at one point but they were more or less just chunky spectacles with side 'blinkers'. I see in the link above they have complete wrap around goggle types that keep out all sorts of flying particles.
These ones look like their most extreme ones!
(https://mk0safetyprotec4vlvy.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/rx-rk2-768x768.jpg.webp)
For machining if prescription safety glasses are not suitable then possibly straight plain lens close-fit goggles would fit under an optivisor?
Well done Lawrence,
Looking forward to seeing the finished loco.
The Bagnall is proving another good seller and I hope you like the backhead detail.
Hopefully more locos to come at a future date.
Stan.
Thank you all for your kind comments - really encouraging.
Stan, I should have mentioned the superbly detailed and rendered back plate. The 3D print has a really smooth finish - little to do in way of cleaning up. I have no conecttion to Stan Williams etc.
I will try the additional magnification and add some more light.
I do not know if some of you are old enough to remember the word demic. I learnt it in the 1960s and was of associated with a sign on very decrepit rolling stock standing folorn at the ends of sidings. The sign was a circle with a St Andrew's shaped cross within. Googly tells me it meant DEMobilsed InCapacitated. Anyway, I have pretty demic eyes, sight loss due to glaucoma, corneal erosion and acute light sensitivity. So things get challenging.
However, I found a metre long length of 5mm brass today so next stop spectacle rings.
Sherline lathing is great fun. I recall the excitement of making a steam dome and chimney that exactly fitted a boiler. All done with a piece of brass rod, a brass bolt and the broken-off end of a round needle file - so clever! Mind you, I also have remained in awe of the Rev. Peter Denny who produced everything on the kitchen table with the absolute minimum of tools. For many years, my railway modelling used cardboard and rare bits of expensive brass section. Snapped blue safety razor blades were the craft knives aided by a junior hack saw and my dad's lethal pre-war soldering iron and lots and lots of patience.
Best wishes,
Lawrence
Hence 'pan-demic', presumably?
We're all doomed!
David.