THE TORONTO SOCIETY OF MODEL ENGINEERS
FEBRUARY 2010 THE MODELLER VOL 40 No 6
WEB SITE: www.tsme.ca Pictures from the meetings along with the Modeller will be posted on this website
TSME CHAT LINE: tsme@yahoogroups.com
FRIDAY, February 12, 2010 at 7.30pm at the Canadian Air and Space Museum, Downsview
IN THIS EVENING’S PROGRAM YOU MAY EXPECT TO HEAR FROM:
Brian Burns will talk about steam reversing gear on 7 ¼” scale locomotives and will discuss how they came about. We hope Brian will be better and able to give this presentation.
Our theme for this meeting will be ”Simple and cheap tooling that you have made and used in your workshop”. So bring in those items so other Club Members can see how you went about it. You don’t have to talk about it if you prefer.
Auction There will be a short auction of Model Engineer magazines that are duplicates from the Club’s collection
We are still relying on members to bring their models or equipment to fill the table.
Thanks to all of those members who have responded over the last two meetings.
MEETING DATES. 2010: Friday evenings on: Feb 12, Mar 12, April 9, May 14 and Jun 11 at the Canadian Air and Space Museum, 65 Carl Hall Road, Downsview M3K 2E1.
LIBRARY The books are not located at the Museum. However, a list of the books is on the TSME website. Call Gerald Gardiner with your request and he will arrange to have your requested book(s) at the next meeting.
What’s up and coming:
No announcement this month
GENERAL:
Vic Walpole, a member of the Club for over twenty years, passed away just after Christmas. His interests were in electrically powered model airplanes and he talked about them at the December 2009 meeting. That twinkle in his eyes will be missed. Our condolences to his family.
Name Tags: Please wear your name tag at the meeting. It is on the table next to the door. They will be collected before the meeting ends.
January, 2010 MEETING - in case you missed it
Fred Eagle brought in the boiler for the locomotive he is building. It had already been welded up when he purchased it and was very pleased with the workmanship that had been put into it. He explained the throttle linkage and how it was set up, and showed the dome cover as well as the stack. Due to the size of the engine and its eventual weight, he decided to make the boiler an easy disconnect from the chassis so that transporting it would be easier. This was explained in detail.
Nigel Coppola talked about the crank assembly and problems he discovered on the Thresher he is rebuilding. When he tightened up the pillowblocks the crank would bind. The problem lay in the movement of the wooden sides of the unit but, after making new adjustable joggers, the cranks ran freely. A short video showed how everything worked. The only problem was that the larger scale traction engine used to power the thresher looked like it could eat it for breakfast! Luckily it is coal fired.
Wolfgang Habicher Showed a two cylinder marine engine he built. He made the crankshaft from a single piece of 1144 steel. It had an interesting reversing gear system originally designed by Maudsley. He explained how it works and demonstrated the motion via the camera and overhead projector. A very interesting system.
Derek O’Dell brought in the boiler for a “Tug” 0-4-0 engine he is building. It is made from seriously thick copper and he explained how he went about forming it from a piece of flat plate. An error was made in the diameter and he explained how he overcame the problem by soldering a strip into the gap and then overlaying another section of copper.
Bill Lowry brought in a horse-drawn water tank wagon that he made (horses excluded). The tank section was made from tongue and groove cedar planks. Due to the scale and the number of times he would fill it, he decided to line the tank. He showed how he made the axles, the tapered steel hubs and the rims. The spokes were made from piano wire and welded in place on the rim. He mentioned that it is nearly complete with only minor items still needed.
Kyle Simmonds showed how he has cobbled together a netbook computer, a PSP and a miniature camera that was attached to a hat. He mentioned that he has been known to walk around wearing it. I was going to say that this would be quite high in the “Geek” factor. Since the meeting I discovered that he is getting into the realm of “Uber Geek”. He still wants to do more research into this system and was given some pointers by some semi-Geeks in the audience. You can tell that I am electronically challenged!
Ron Melvin has almost completed the “Little Angel” that he started building a “while” back. He mentioned that he was recently able to get in some serious shop time. He has decided to go with a solid state ignition system and described how he was going to mount the components. He also described the very nice oilers he built under the guidance of WH. The swaging of the ends to seal the plastic tubing (glass) and the jigs used were described in detail.
Dave Powell has begun the building of a horizontal engine casting set sold by Tiny Power. He showed how he mounted the components on a base (tooling) plate so that all the components would be machined in alignment. This would also reduce some fiddly setups.
ITEMS FOR SALE, WANTED OR SWAPS:
DON CARR, the TSME Archivist, would like to hear from members who were:”Official Photographers” at
meetings and/or events. He is especially interested in the 2000 – 2008 period. He would like to borrow the
photos so they can be put on the TSME Historical Photos and Pages section of the Website.
None
Note: for security reasons only your name will appear on the web posted version.
Geoff Kingma
PICTURES FOR THE TSME WEBSITE If you have picture/s that you think are good for posting on the TSME website, please email to KIM TYSON at webmaster@tsme.ca.