SimonD’s workbench

simond

Western Thunderer
As my packing van as perhaps taking up more than it’s fair share of the 2021 Workbench thread, I’ve brought it over here.

The van will be part of a breakdown train for my “one day” Porth Dinllaen layout, the premise of which is that Brunel did build his proposed line to, and Irish mail port on the Lleyn Peninsula. There’s a load of detail on my thread on t’other channel.

The “one day” factor is that I’ve been building stock for it for something over 20 years, and hopefully, the extension will materialise in the not too distant future, and I’ll be able to build the layout to run it!

the Loco Shed part of the layout has been entertaining me for the last few years. Here are a few pictures.

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The last shot reminds me that I need to put the lamp irons on the van. The buffers supplied have undrilled whitemetal stocks (I can live with that) and whitemetal heads (no good for man nor beast) and the whitemetal steam heat and vac pipes are not pretty. My immediate call for buffers would have been to Graham Jones at NMRS, but as many will be aware, he sadly succumbed to Covid a couple of weeks ago. I’ll have to see where such parts are now available.

The rugby is preventing much progress at the moment, brake knitting later...

Atb
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Partial brakes

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Still putting off the knitting, mind you assembling 8 brake hangers from 4 components each, and soldering them to the chassis whilst burning my finger tips and assuring that they cannot touch the wheels as the compensation operates gives strong support to Mickoo’s assertion that multimedia modelling is the way forward. And took a while.

ah well, there’s always tomorrow: 2 hand levers, 3 equalising levers, various links and the chain plates that link them all together.

Atb
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Thanks Phil, it’s coming along but needs a bit more mojo!

the van has been light relief!

cheers
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
image.jpg

Brake rigging complete.

If you’ve got eagle eyes, you might spot that I’ve cheated, but I doubt it. You’ll certainly not be able to see it when it’s the right way up :)

Apart from the actual brake operating levers, I think that’s the chassis built, the remaining paint I’ll brush with acrylics, including the wheel discs which should be wooden.

Body now needs spring hanger brackets, lamp irons, buffer stocks, vac & steam heat pipes and then it’s ready for paint. Then roof, glazing, roof lights, transfers, buffer heads & couplings and a waft of something grubby. The paint will wait for its stablemate, and an improvement in the weather!

Atb
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Bit of progress on its mate, riding van 118:

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A pleasant afternoon on Friday, half an hour yesterday, and a few hours today.

the floorboards are a bit challenging, and the window frames required a deal of care, though I think I’m up there with the no-solder crew in places. Unfortunately, in other places... actually, it’s not too bad and will clean up fine.

buffers ordered but have not arrived unfortunately, I guess they’ll be here this week.

still plenty to do below the solebars, brakes on this one are a type I’ve not seen before, will be interesting.

atb
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Footboards installed, somewhat challenging, but pretty much straight, I think. Unlike the end windows, which had a kind of “Brian Blessed Raised Eyebrows” look about them, now resolved.

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Buffers have not arrived. :(

worse, the replacement Ersa RD80 has just packed up. It is very obviously a fault in the cable at the connection to the handle of the iron, as determined wiggling can get it all to work again, for a few minutes. The first one lasted about 10 months, this one hasn’t done ten weeks, and given I’m a hobby modeller, it gets used perhaps 4 or 5 hours, some weeks, and not at all, others. I shall discuss with RS tomorrow. Their service was brilliant, but there’s no point in having another one that’s going to fail. Will have to see what the options are, recommendations welcome.

Atb
Simon
 

Boyblunder

Western Thunderer
Simon,
Rapid Electronics elected not to replace my faulty 8 month old Ersa and gave me a full refund instead. I decided not to buy another Ersa because they appear to be of lower quality than earlier versions and repaired the faulty PCB in the old Solomon SL-30 instead. Its ability to solder is just as good, down side is it takes longer to heat up from cold. It did cost £20 to buy a 40 watt temperature adjustable soldering station from Toolstation to I could repair the Solomon, net saving £150. Note that Toolstation's 62910 Draper Soldering Station 40W has just gone up to £24 and is now cheaper on Amazon, its good for wiring but the tip is no good for building models.
Robin
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Thanks Robin,

RS have already despatched another one... The first lasted from February to December, the second December til yesterday...

Carol, the nice lady at RS Customer Service said that she had checked to see if there were any technical bulletins within RS, but apparently not, so "you've jsut been unlucky", so I said, "fine, let's keep our fingers crossed", and see what happens. If it goes pear-shaped again, I'll have a futher discussion and see what alternatives are available.

At work, we have Ersa Nano for our production guys, I think there are 5 or 6 of them, and AFAIK none has ever had an issue. I do have a Weller PU81/WSP80 in my office, was in our lab, but both of these are ~ £100 more expensive than the RDS80.

Again, great service from RS, shame the RDS80 is not as reliable as it used to be.

Will report further in due course
cheers
Simon
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Yep, same same. When did you get it? I believe production moved to China and it has been suggested that coincided with a spate of failures, but given my iphone is far more complex, and so far, entirely reliable, I’m not wholly convinced!
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
I used plain 'ol Weller 25watt and 45watt iron's for over 55 years. The 25watt is still going strong too.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Thanks Heather, ‘Tis curious. Mine is also marked only Germany beneath, and the instruction book remains firmly mute on the subject, but the RS website says “Country of Origin, China”.

Let’s hope the new one survives its warranty, and beyond!

Paul,

not sure about the I-con or Nano, but the plug & handle on the RDS are overmoulded, and you can only plug it in, or not!

fingers firmly crossed
Simon
 

3 LINK

Western Thunderer
The first temperature controlled iron I had was from Antex which at the time were made in Devon if my memory serves me correctly. Anyhow I had that iron for 27 years before it finally expired. So I decided to order another one direct from the factory, and spoke to a nice chap on the phone that said as I was a loyal customer I could have 30% off if I brought one that day, which I did. Well just over two years later the iron failed and it turned out that the main element or something similar was unrepairable. On further research it turns out that Antex irons are now made in China and their original factory in Devon is now just a distribution depot.

I am now the owner of a Ersa and have been for the last 3 yrs without any problems, touch wood.

Cheers,

Martyn.
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
memories of Crocodile Dundee, “that’s not a soldering iron, this, is a soldering iron!”
80W 10mm bit! This did all my Blacksmith coaches. Just a bit chunky, and tended to overheat if not used continuously.
This is my elderly 80 Watt Weller. ..
WEB Weller 80watt.jpg

The black handled 25 watt must have gone caput seeing as a red handle version without three LED lights is on the hook.
 
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