Monday 15 February 2016

Boxpoking about

Hello.

So what have I been upto since my last post I hear you all ask. Well, I have been mostly CNCing stuff.

I have a Dapol Q1 which has been treated to a conversion a while ago. For those of you who remember it I ended up writing an article for the Model Railway Journal which ended up in issue 211. The problem was that I was never happy with the results. While the engine did run it wasn't upto my standards as the wheels were a kind of hybrid of dapol and 2mmSA.


As with many things in life, the older you get, the more knowledgeable you get and this is a classic case. Since my last attempt at conversion I have rethought an approach to producing the wheels for another attempt at getting something I am happy with. This time armed with a CNC mill I made a start...





This is how the wheel started off. A 3D model of a scale wheel with a 2mmSA rim attached, from this I can generate a CNC programme. In my previous post I showed how I turned up the blanks from Paxolin and added the association rims.

The wheel blanks were clamped in a rotary table and clocked with a dial test indicator to ensure they were centred correctly. I had a frustrating time getting the DTI to fit the milling machine because of the depth on the Z axis wasn't enough. This meant I had to make a little bracket (seen clamped to the mill chuck) which was a pain.
Once the wheel was centred the programme was then run. The milling cutter is a 0.5mm slot drill which conveniently was suitable for all the milling and drilling operations. The programme took about an hour per wheel. It seemed to take forever to do all 7 (6+1 spare) spread over a number of evenings.
And these are the result to date. The backs need tidying up a bit on the lathe but other than that the next step is cutting some axles and fitting them to the chassis.

Am I happy with them? Definitely, they look like Boxpok wheels and fingers crossed they are an improvement on the previous attempt.

Julia.



6 comments:

  1. Seriously clever stuff.....

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very nice Julia. Let's hope that they run as good as they look :-)

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Julia, they look great. Looking forward to seeing the reborn Q1.

    Alex.

    ReplyDelete
  4. With pedant-mode 'on', I should point out that these are not Boxpok wheels but Bulleid Firth Brown (BFB) wheels. The American Boxbok wheel was made of sections fitted together, whereas Bulleid's design was a single casting. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulleid_Firth_Brown for more info.

    Whatever the name, that's a wonderful bit of small-scale milling that you've done :)

    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'M NOW FULFILL FINANCIALLY BECAUSE OF THE LOAN I GOT FROM LFDS .I would like to bring this to the notice of the public about how i came in contact with LFDS after i lost my job and being denied loan by my bank and other financial institution due to my credit score. I could not pay my children's fees. I was behind on bills, about to be thrown out of the house due to my inability to pay my rent, It was during this period my kids were taken from me by foster care. Then i set out to seek for funds online where i lost $3,670 that i borrowed from friends which i was rip off by two online loan companies. Until i read about:Le_Meridian Funding Service  (lfdsloans@outlook.com / lfdsloans@lemeridianfds.com) somewhere on the internet, Still wasn't convince because of what i have been through until a relative of mine who is a clergy also told me about the ongoing loan scheme of LFDS at a very low interest rate of 1.9%% and lovely repayment terms without penalty for default of payment. I have no choice than to also contact them which i did through text +1-989-394-3740 and Mr Benjamin responded back to me That day was the I'M best and greatest day of my life which can never be forgotten when i receive a credit alert of $400,000.00 Usd loan amount i applied for. I utilized the loan effectively to pay up my debts and to start up a business and today i and my kids are so happy and fulfill. You can as well contact them through email: (lfdsloans@outlook.com / lfdsloans@lemeridianfds.com)  WhatsApptext  helpline: +1-989-394-3740 Why am i doing this? I am doing this to save as many that are in need of a loan not to be victim of scams on the internet. Thanks and God bless you all, I'm Oleksander Artem from Horizon Park BC , Ukrain.

    ReplyDelete