I quickly printed the plans off to scale and made a copy of them. I first started with a sheet of 28 thou nickel silver sheet and cleaned it with meths. I have a large black permanent marker pen and used it to blacken the metal ready for marking out. My scriber is so cheap and easy, I simply took the lead out of a 0.5mm mechanical pencil and replaced it with piano wire sharpened by running a few passes on some emery.
I marked out the frame and running plate at the same time. I had thought of using thinner material for the running plate but for ruggedness reasons I will file away on the edges to give the impression of a thinner sheet without losing strength.
Click to see full size image
Click to see full size image
These images show the frames and running plate after marking out and cutting out using a piercing saw frame with 150mm reach and a 3/0 blade.
After the rough cutting out I then file down near to the line and finish off with using a mandrel that is designed for those little grit tubes that look like a miniature coke can about 3/8" dia. I use this tool on the curves and after filing is done and the end result is the frames look like they have been cut on a milling machine.
I have started work on the buffer beams and these are made from 15 thou nickel silver laminated together. These parts are made this way as 30 thou is a bit too hard to rivet on my machine. More details will be unleashed in the next issue. Progress at the moment looks like this.
Click to see full size image
Hope you have enjoyed reading Part 1. Part 2 will follow as soon. Thank you for reading this far and comments are welcome.
