Thursday, June 23, 2011

Good news, bad news.

Tonight in the shed it was Cb project time again. I had been concerned that I was not going to be able to get enough weight into the body to get decent electrical contact (traction, blah).
I started off with some brass bar and cut it into shapes to fit into the side tanks. the boiler also got filled at the same time. Now the more perceptive of you will be asking why I didn't use lead. basically it was because I could not find any lead sheet in any of my boxes. I do have plenty of lead but I didn't really feel like beating any of my wargaming miniatures flat for the cause. plus the difference in densities is only about 3g/cc (8.4 g/cc vs 11.3g/cc). I suppose I could have used Tungsten at 19.2g/cc as I have a couple of bottles somewhere, but it just seemed to be overkill.

Here it is tonight in all its unsquare and incomplete glory.


Anyway, back onto the layout and it runs much better than previously, so I'm quite happy with it. There is still more space to fit weight in the roof and the firebox under the main frame.

And the bad news? at 8:13 PM the last of my fretsaw blades let go with a sad little 'plink'.
I assume I can buy more of these things at Bunnings or Mitre 10 here in Palmy.

Wiring still plods along on the big layout, but It just hasn't excited me too much this week, plus I'm having a bit of a rethink in terms of 'how do I chase down potential shorts in the wiring with DCC'. Back in Nelson Teach solved some of these problems by using screw connector tag strips, so that when a problem manifested itself you could at least isolate it to one area. Looks liek another visit to Jaycar is on the cards. I'm out of switches again anyway.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For fret blades, try Placemakers also if Bunnings can't supply - they are across Railway Rd from Bunnings and towards the NIMT.
"Mr Models" in Cuba St might be worth a try also.

Anonymous said...

Would you like some thin strips of printers lead? Not overly heavy but you may be able to cut it up and slot it into tight spaces.

Nick