Monday, August 08, 2016

Boiler won't sit down


I always hope that these posts will help people. If you are building a kit, it's useful to read about potential problems before you encounter them. 

Which is why I mention that all did not go well when I first mated the Barclay body to the chassis. It wouldn't sit down properly. 

At first I though this was due to the motor hitting the inside of the firebox. Que lots of squinting down the boiler and worrying how I was going to grind the shaft even shorter. 

Then I spotted the real problem. The boiler bottom sticks below the footplate and hits a couple of chassis spacers - the ones I've coloured red in the photo. 

A few moments with a mini-drill and cutting disk removed the front spacer, and cut a chunk out of the boiler to clear the one by the motor. I had wondered if the front one should sit in the slot in the boiler, but to do that would move the later forward exposing a hole in the footplate and clashing with the motor. 

Anyway, all the work is invisible and not the body sits where it should. 

2 comments:

Huw Griffiths said...

What we really want to know is this - were you already encountering these build problems with this kit before it got sidelined - or have you only encountered these problems after you got chance to return to the build?

Some people might think this sounds like a stupid question. I'm not so sure - as I've had both of these happen to me with different builds.

I don't think I'm alone.

Phil Parker said...

No, these are new problems. The model only found itself sidelined due to lack of time.

None of this is insurmountable, and partly due to the chassis being designed for a different kit, but included with this one. The instructions do mention this and I'd not expect anyone reasonably confident at kitbuilding having an issue.