Listening to the Solstice

[stevehnz]

My son tells me its available in the international foods section of the local supermarket, i wonder.........?  

Steve.

Edited November 22, 2018 by stevehnz

[TheBaron]

On 11/19/2018 at 5:16 PM, hendie said:

Fruit cake? or fruit pudding?  There's a difference y'know

Throw in a tattie scone and a slice of black pudding...   Dammit, now you've got me homesick again

https://www.scottishgourmetfood.co.uk/haggis/cockburns_haggis.htm

 

That's Christmas  - and the New Year - sorted ....

On 11/19/2018 at 5:16 PM, hendie said:

No debate.  Just 100% scratchbuild.  Simple!

I think it is going to have to be scratched hendie: I'm not one for expensive kits tbh as I'd rather plough funds into tools and materials these days.

 

As an antidote to work, reading Mr. Haresnape's excellent monograph on Stroudley and his engines has been wonderfully compelling about a period when engineering and art were promiscuously entwined.

 

On 11/19/2018 at 5:22 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

I've never been quoted so much. I feel highly honored.

You are too modest. 

 

Many of us still own copies of Mysticke Pete's Almanack, which we consult regularly when ascertaining the most propitious phase of the moon under which to plant Asparagus.

On 11/19/2018 at 6:56 PM, Martian Hale said:

I was under the impression that chemical weapons have been banned in the UK for some decades now.

Surprised that didn't elicit any farting jokes.

Proud of this forum sometimes!

On 11/19/2018 at 9:46 PM, perdu said:

Be a kid drinking it...

As opposed to alcohol, when many of us become kids after drinking it....

On 11/20/2018 at 4:41 PM, bbudde said:

That is hopefully not worse than trying a german hot Glühbier

I had some of this once Benedikt

I emphasize the 'once' part.

On 11/20/2018 at 4:49 PM, limeypilot said:

Or American Root Beer...vile stuff, it made me want to throw up almost immediately!

Apparently it also gives you square glasses and heavy mascara....

 

On 11/20/2018 at 5:36 PM, AdrianMF said:

I can sympathise entirely. Being stuck in a lab thousands of miles from the hobby bench for the next two weeks isn't doing my Beaufort build much good.

Admit it.

You're a chemist in the Irn Bru product development lab aren't you Adrian?

I won't tell the others....

On 11/20/2018 at 6:42 PM, Martian Hale said:

The trouble is that Irn Bru isn't one of them.

That you should disparage a drink that contains so many nostalgic hues of your ruddy-faced homeworld is beyond me Martian. 😄

 

On 11/20/2018 at 7:01 PM, Martian Hale said:

I don't think you would get a licence anyway. Just think of the damage the stuff could do if it escaped into the New Zealand ecosystem.

You know that if you drop Mentos into it and shake the bottle, that it just stands proud and aloof, like Jesse Rae:

 

 

Now. Despite current busy-ness, there's been the odd 20 minutes here and there over the week which have been used to switch modes of being from 'lackey of late capitalism' to 'friend of brass'. Life has been richer as a result. 

Indeed, it may be I've discovered a form of wellness that might be named brassness.

Either way, here's a bit:

A 9mm disc punched from brass with some rear business soldered on to form the core of the back of the Cheetah.

 

Before going any further, I took the precaution of sketching out the main sections that I want to add, in order to: a) indentify their function and interaction, and: b) analyze which bits will fit on prior to adding the engine to the bearer, and which bits will have to be added afterwards due to sticking out through the framework:

The main bits then as you can see are the magnetos that angle out one either side, plus petrol pumps above them and generator drive to the rear. Also the carburretor/boost control asssembly angling down underneath. The limiting factor regarding parts placement is - as you can see above - the diameter of the mounting collar that the engine affixes to.

 

A quick test fit to check the diamter of the brass 'lip' overhangs the rear of the plastic engine correctly:

...afollowed by  a quick vertical assembly on the bearers to check that the visuals look in proportion between all the respective sections:

Need to snip a bit of the rearmost tube where it approaches the firewall, but otherwise a good basis to proceed:

In this state it looks like an early space rocket design.....

 

Next, some 0.5mm holes were drilled out all around for the (sparkplug?) wiring on the cylinders:

Also drilled out were the oil pumps underneath the protective dome at the front. To this I added a length of 0.5mm brass tube to represent the collars into which the oil lines are connected on their way back to the oil tank behind the firewall:

That should give a more secure way of attaching the oil lines later on.

 

In terms of starting to add a pedestal for the fuel pumps to sit on then, I remembered that the punch & die set is not just for plastic:

That 2mm disc was then soldered on so that we could start building-up the rear detailing:

In a quest for suitable parts, the Steampunk Vault was broached and some poking about ensued:

...ending up with a short collared piece of undefined original function that got ground down a little in the Dremel and added as the central core for the fuel pumps to hang off on either side:

To start forming the inner section of the magnetos, I cut some sections off of this clock-work:

These were then roughly shaped and soldered on in similar fashion to form the port and starboard magnetos:

At this stage I'm just blocking-in roughly-profiled shapes to get proportion and placement roughed out - final shaping can be carried out later with diamond birrs in the Dremel.

A check of this work against the exhaust ring as well as the engine:

H.G.Wells eat your heart out!

Some excess Cavorite to grind off as well in places....

Then finally an inverted test-assembly of all sections to eyeball for proportion and location:

 

It's quite possible you've forgotten that there is an aircraft in the background of this build somewhere. I know I have...

 

Mightn't get anything done tomorrow - self and Mrs. B are heading over to Birr Castle for our annual winter visit to Lord Rosse's Leviathan:

Somehow the starkness of winter suits this great instrument amongst the trees.

Hard to believe this quiet rural town was once at the forefront of cosmology:

 

Night chums, and thanks for looking as always.

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

Utterly brilliant brass work. I felt quite at home reading through that last post, as I so often find I’m fiddling about with oddments of brass scrap to make some detail or other for a loco commission. At this rate, scratchbuilding a steam loco will be a doddle for you. 

[Pete in Lincs]

11 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Many of us still own copies of Mysticke Pete's Almanack

The pages of which are soft and perforated on purpose....

Or, to quote the oracle, 'You never appreciate what you have until it's all gone.

Toilet paper is a good example'.

 

 

[perdu]

 

When you invert that wondrous work of brassart do be careful to ensure it stays put instead of journeying off in search of Hesikos

 

It do look awfy reminiscent of Professor Lachlan M^cKinnon's excellent space vessel, don'tcha think?

 

It do, incidentally look extremely realistic

 

Loves it I do, loves it

[giemme]

It's a sculpture you're doing, is that what it is???   

 

Ciao

[bbudde]

err, ja, errrr, ja errrrrr

[stevehnz]

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

You know that if you drop Mentos into it and shake the bottle, that it just stands proud and aloof, like Jesse Rae:

You're doing the @Procopius thing now, intergrating multiple themes into your posts, after this lot I was going to give you a great big fat

 

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

It's quite possible you've forgotten that there is an aircraft in the background of this build somewhere. I know I have...

& then you went & got all serious & clever & for the imaginatively challenged among us, that introduces all sort of quandary & confusion, 'cause I so wanted to give this a big fat  but on the grounds one of them wasn't nearly enough, here's some more    as well as a          

There, sorted, I don't know what my problem was.

Steve.

[CedB]

I'm with Ben and Steve here Tony.

Your posts start out as

… and then you do some modelling and it's all

 

Respect, oh Baronial one. Those brass bits are, well, awe inspiring. Love it.

[perdu]

yup

[bigbadbadge]

Tony this is truly inspirational work.  What you're creating is fantastic.  Great work.  You will have no trouble scratch building the lovely steam locomotive. 

 

Keep up the good work. 

All the best 

Chris 

[keefr22]

1 hour ago, perdu said:

yup

 

Agreed.

 

55 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

You will have no trouble scratch building the lovely steam locomotive. 

 

Can't wait for that, best stock up on superlatives!

 

Keith

[Brandy]

I can almost smell the burnt oil. Lovely stuff, and very inspiring.

 

Ian

[Spookytooth]

As above comments Tony.

Fine brass work there.

And great commentary too, I must add.

 

Simon.

[AdrianMF]

That silver superglue seems to be doing the trick on the shiny yellow plastic! Bootiful.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TheBaron]

On 11/23/2018 at 7:54 PM, Heather Kay said:

Utterly brilliant brass work. I felt quite at home reading through that last post, as I so often find I’m fiddling about with oddments of brass scrap to make some detail or other for a loco commission. At this rate, scratchbuilding a steam loco will be a doddle for you. 

Damn decent of you to say so Heather.  

I most certainly must get over and have a squint at the loco work listed in your sig. as I've much to learn regarding such work.

On 11/23/2018 at 8:01 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

The pages of which are soft and perforated on purpose....

Or, to quote the oracle, 'You never appreciate what you have until it's all gone.

Toilet paper is a good example'.

Never tie a bog roll to your neighbour's Pit Bull and then go 'Ahh look - it's the Andrex puppy...' is another one.

On 11/23/2018 at 8:02 PM, perdu said:

When you invert that wondrous work of brassart do be careful to ensure it stays put instead of journeying off in search of Hesikos

I'd never heard of 'The Lost Planet' until looking that up Bill!

On 11/23/2018 at 8:02 PM, perdu said:

It do, incidentally look extremely realistic

As a space rocket or as an Anson engine.?

I'm beginning to lose track myself at the moment.....

On 11/23/2018 at 8:04 PM, giemme said:

It's a sculpture you're doing, is that what it is???

😆 You rumbled me bang to rights guv'nor!

 

On 11/23/2018 at 9:31 PM, bbudde said:

err, ja, errrr, ja errrrrr

That's not the sound I made that time I had Gluhbier......

On 11/23/2018 at 9:58 PM, stevehnz said:

There, sorted, I don't know what my problem was.

 

On 11/24/2018 at 12:29 AM, CedB said:

Your posts start out as

… and then you do some modelling and it's all

 

On 11/24/2018 at 9:02 AM, perdu said:

yup

Steve, Ced, Bill: twelve years living in Belfast during 'The Troubles' made me keenly aware that humour and seriousness are inseparable twins in daily life. Lose the former and you lose empathy, lose the latter and you lose understanding.

 

My other sermons are still available on C90 cassette....

😵

On 11/24/2018 at 9:22 AM, bigbadbadge said:

You will have no trouble scratch building the lovely steam locomotive. 

Thanks for your kind words Chris. There'll be no backtracking on the Stroudley now after the interest on here! 😉

On 11/24/2018 at 10:19 AM, keefr22 said:

Can't wait for that, best stock up on superlatives!

Best lay-in a few expletives too Keith when I proceed to make every loco-newbie error in the book! 🚋  

On 11/24/2018 at 11:38 AM, limeypilot said:

I can almost smell the burnt oil. Lovely stuff, and very inspiring.

Decent of you Ian - thanks. 

That reminds me - I still need to make the oil tank!

On 11/24/2018 at 1:25 PM, Spookytooth said:

As above comments Tony.

Fine brass work there.

And great commentary too, I must add.

Ta Simon. Mrs B. has also been informed that the house needs a dapping set, though I was careful to avoid specifying exactly what DIY task required them. Curling the ends of over-starched collars perhaps...

16 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

That silver superglue seems to be doing the trick on the shiny yellow plastic! Bootiful.

 Brilliant Adrian!

 

Most of yesterday was spent in the tranquility of Birr Castle:

 

- in annual pilgrimage to 'The Leviathan':

In my last post you may recall me mentioning that Birr had once been a leading light in 19th century atsronomical research; I'd completely forgetten that the grounds have recently become home to the LOFAR radio telescope as well:

The main part of of the array is that large black region in the background covering several hectares whilst the aerials in the foreground are - I think connected - with solar radio observations alone. Being able to walk between 19th & 21st century instrumentation like this - in complete silence - gives a profound sense of looking and listening to 'out there'. 

 

This rotary-impressiveness also sits at the entrance to the castle:

An incredibly-modern looking reminder that the Earl of Rosse (who built the giant telescope) had a son William who invented the steam turbines that utterly transformed the late 19th century industry and transport.

 

Moving forward then (in an appallingly-bad segue ) to later engines, one of the most helpful illustrations that I've found showing the the rear of the Cheetah is this advert for Hobson's carburettor, from Flight magazine in 1936:

Invigorated by this find I realized I wasn't happy with the first attempt at the magnetos and de-soldered the originals to replace them with a new set. I then added the fuel pumps that sit on either side above them:

For working with such small parts, I 've also learned that sometimes it's better to solder on a roughly blocked out shape (such as the magnetos) and then grind/sand them down to their final shape in situ. This has significantly reduced the flow of obscenities of late. In similar vein, I shaped the upperpart of the carburettor whilst it was still on its original donor structure:

and only then cutting it off and adding to the eunderside:

You'll note that's only part of the carburettor: the lowest section will need to go on after the engine has been mounted to the collar due to its restricted diamter.

Also added was some 0.5mm brass tube beneath the electrical generator at the rear; this forms the interface for the cranking handle to be inserted (and accounts for the hole you see on that side of the nacelle):

Finally, I wanted to add the rigid fuel pipes that angle out of the pumps and downward. You can see these as a prominent feature on the Hobson advert above so I used some lengths of 0.4mm rod shaped in the PE tool. This needed to be done in two parts  at an awkward angle, hence the ad hoc wooden jig you see below to hold them in place for soldering:

From those holes, this emerged:

 - which was promptly had its various lengths trimmed and soldered on to the pumps:

Also added was a short section of 0.6mm to detail the collar into which the fuel lines run:

 

At this point I've having to be extremlely careful  in soldering so many smnall parts on now in close proximity to each other, less (even with heat sinks and wet tissue) the addition of one part loosens its neighbour.

 

That's about as much as sanity and eyesight will handle today - just as well really as I need to take stock about what else actually can be fitted on at this scale. There's a couple of Medusa-like runs of wires going from the ends of the magnetos into a housing atop the fuel pumps but that, like the carburettor, wil lhave to wait until after the engine is on the bearers. The next step then I reckon will be to smooth away any excess solder (which in places has actually functioned as a rather handy filler to smooth any sharps angles where cylinders meet each other) and then epoxy the brass rear to the plastic of the engine.

 

Time to ponder anyway.

Hope you're all having a good Sunday!

:bye

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bbudde]

Looks fine Tony. I guess very exhausting, fiddly work. Btw can Birr castle be converted into Bier castle? That would be fine

And for the nice hot german Glühbier I'm really confessed the sound  was "aah,  aargh,  gulp, aaaarrrgh, ublllp,  uahlpp, hualp, archr-aorchr"

( Edit: Maybe a similar happening to this:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK0JaEde4VI )

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by bbudde

[Pete in Lincs]

Our neighbour has an extremely thick Golden Retriever so I think I'm safe there. 😉

Birr Castle does look interesting and I wondered how they'd obtained a Pegasus engine all that time ago.

Fabulous soldering stuff on show, though we now have your fingerprints so yes, bang to rights, Matey!

And, can Santa please bring me a Hobson carburator for Crimbo?

 

[CedB]

More wow metalwork Tony - looking spectacular  

[Spookytooth]

What more can I say Tony.

Very fine soldering on a minute scale too.

 

 

Simon.

[hendie]

Lovely brass work as always.  It seems we as a group here have used about every superlative in describing your adventures in metal transmogrification

 

I find the one thing missing from a good soldering session is the satisfying  sound that tells you the job underway, and/or is done.   The 'click' of plastic as it snaps together.  The sizzling of bacon.  etc.

My vote is for number two or number three here, though the cheese slicer has a particularly exciting crescendo at the end (and if applied to soldering probably means things are not going quite as planned!).

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

15 minutes ago, hendie said:

I find the one thing missing from a good soldering session is the satisfying  sound that tells you the job underway, and/or is done.   The 'click' of plastic as it snaps together.  The sizzling of bacon.  etc.

There’s a particularly satisfying sizzle if you use liquid flux. Once it stops it more or less means the joint is made properly. More often than not the satisfaction is visual: the momentary flash of bright solder appearing as the joint is formed neatly and not requiring careful cleaning up. How I wish my technique was that good all the time. 

[giemme]

39 minutes ago, hendie said:

Lovely brass work as always.  It seems we as a group here have used about every superlative in describing your adventures in metal transmogrification

Ditto!  

 

Ciao

 

 

 

[Hamden]

 

Nothing left to say everyone else has beaten me to it!

So I'll just say STUNNING WORK AS ALWAYS.

 

  Roger

[keefr22]

Tony, everyone has beaten me to all the superlatives about your metalsmithing and in also saying that others have used all the superlatives up before them, so all I can think to say is -

 

damn well played Sir.

 

Keith