Rebuilt Crosti 9f

[spikey faz]

Now you see it...


Now you don't!


Body retaining assemblies have been and gone. I couldn't get them to align to my satisfaction and the retaining bolts were putting some odd torsional pressures on the chassis. Will try and come up with something less fiddly.

Mike

 

[simond]

Interesting.

a pal had terrible issues with a 9F he’d bought, and could not get it to run. I offered to have a play, and see what I could do, and eventually traced the issue to a very stiff boiler/footplate assembly causing a relatively much less stiff chassis to twist when assembled to it. Unfortunately the boiler assembly itself had been built (and subsequently nicely painted & weathered) slightly twisted, so I had to shim the mountings to get it to sit sweetly on the chassis, and not look wrong, but that done, the running was very much improved.

if you make sure your footplate & boiler assembly are true, I don’t think you’ll have any issues with twist.

 

[spikey faz]

Interesting.

a pal had terrible issues with a 9F he’d bought, and could not get it to run. I offered to have a play, and see what I could do, and eventually traced the issue to a very stiff boiler/footplate assembly causing a relatively much less stiff chassis to twist when assembled to it. Unfortunately the boiler assembly itself had been built (and subsequently nicely painted & weathered) slightly twisted, so I had to shim the mountings to get it to sit sweetly on the chassis, and not look wrong, but that done, the running was very much improved.

if you make sure your footplate & boiler assembly are true, I don’t think you’ll have any issues with twist.

Yes, I think a light touch is required! No need to torque the chassis and body together.

Mike

 

[simond]

It wasn't a case of wringing them in till they squealed! From memory, there were two screws under the cab and one up front somewhere, and if you tightened all three, it did't go! If you left two loose, it ran ok, but looked wonky, and they fell out eventually

 

[spikey faz]

5 hours of graft and I have this. I think it's a motion bracket, but the amount of work involved to get to this stage has fried my poor old brain!




I've soldered in a small bolt to allow repositioning. I'm not taking any chances by soldering it to the sideframe.



It actually lines up quite well. There needs to be a small bit of metal taken out of the footplate to allow for a snug fit, but I think it should be OK. My previous decision to move the footplate forward by 2mm appears to be the right one.


The gap between the bracket upright and sideframe will disappear once I've made some adjustments with my file.


Phew!
Mike

 

[spikey faz]

And off it comes again! Turns out one of the brackets I'd soldered on was not aligned properly.

So we have this.


Note that the round part on the right was not supposed to come off, but decided it was going to anyway. Great!

It's all back together now. Looks messy, but the cleanup will have to wait. At least it all lines up properly now.


Before I start with the fibreglass pencil cleaning session tomorrow, does anyone use anything else to clean this sort of thing/mess up? I use wire wool and various grades of wet & dry paper as well, but wonder if there is something else I'm missing.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Dog Star]

A graver may help for flat surfaces. Or grind a cutting edge of an old file.

 

[spikey faz]

A graver may help for flat surfaces. Or grind a cutting edge of an old file.

I've got a broken file which does quite well. What I'm getting a bit fed up with is picking bits of fibreglass pencil out of my fingers. I seem to remember seeing a similar sort of pencil thing , but with steel or brass bristles. Probably imagined it in my crosti-induced delerium!

Mike

 

[Dog Star]

I seem to remember seeing a similar sort of pencil thing , but with steel or brass bristles.

Look for Expotools pack of three propelling brushes, each with a different type of fibre.

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

Sticking strips of abrasive paper to coffee stirrers with double sided tape make a useful tool for sanding in difficult places.

Tim

 

[spikey faz]

Look for Expotools pack of three propelling brushes, each with a different type of fibre.

Just ordered a set.

 

[spikey faz]

Sticking strips of abrasive paper to coffee stirrers with double sided tape make a useful tool for sanding in difficult places.

Tim

I tend to use disposable nail-files, which I guess are similar.

Mike

 

[Eastsidepilot]

A steel wire brush in the mini drill works well also... Miniature Wire Brushes - Wire Brush Store...

Col.

 

[Rob Pulham]

I find these invaluable, I was pointed at them by a friend in Oz

This image is from Amazon as it's where I got the last lot that I bought.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wobekuy-Bristle-Abrasive-Polishing-Accessories/dp/B097NHP7CM/ref=sr_1_6?crid=E9ZTPP602KKD&keywords=rotary+tool+abrasive+spider&qid=1647513534&sprefix=rotary+tool+abrasive+spider,aps,94&sr=8-6

I find that they are even more effective at cleaning up solder if you double them up.

 

[spikey faz]

I find these invaluable, I was pointed at them by a friend in Oz

This image is from Amazon as it's where I got the last lot that I bought.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wobekuy-Bristle-Abrasive-Polishing-Accessories/dp/B097NHP7CM/ref=sr_1_6?crid=E9ZTPP602KKD&keywords=rotary+tool+abrasive+spider&qid=1647513534&sprefix=rotary+tool+abrasive+spider,aps,94&sr=8-6

I find that they are even more effective at cleaning up solder if you double them up.

They look interesting Rob, so I've ordered a set. Will see how I get on with them.

In the meantime here is some more metal origami or the r/h side motion bracket components.



Mike

 

[spikey faz]

Another alignment issue!

The upper part of the motion bracket should angle in towards the footplate according to the pictures of 9fs I've been looking at. My rather crude scribblings below hopefully show what I mean.



I think I'll be putting a few more hours work in on this!

Mike

 

[daifly]

It seems to be a question of which photos you look at. I've no idea of the provenance of these two poor
photos:


Dave

 

[Dan Randall]

That colour shot is superb! Great find Dave.


Regards

Dan

 

[spikey faz]

It seems to be a question of which photos you look at. I've no idea of the provenance of these two poor
photos:
View attachment 158474
View attachment 158475
Dave

It's a tricky one, but on some of the pictures I've studied there is a change of shadow exactly where you'd expect the angle of the bracket to change. I'm reasonably confident I'm on the right track and have made a slight 'adjustment' with my piercing saw.




I'll tidy it all up and fill in the gaps later.

Mike

 

[oldravendale]

Here's three "not great but may be useful" shots I took of a rebuilt Crosti 92020 at Southall on 5th December 1965. My copyright.

Brian