Winter Project - Installing Hornblocks

I recently resumed this project by fitting the CSB tags to each of the brass bearings. I then continued with fine tuning the fit of the bearings to each hornblock, when happy with their fit, a length of 0.4mm brass wire was installed through the holes in the bottom of each hornblock to stop the bearings falling out.

I'd then reached the stage where the hornblocks needed to be fitted to the chassis.....


To help me get the get the axles square to the chassis I decided to create a simple jig. I started by drawing a diagram in Adobe Illustrator of a rectangle the width of the chassis frame and longer so that the chassis frame could be aligned over the top. Then two rectangles where drawn to match the wheel base and wider than the chassis to help with aligning the axle jigs at right angles to the chassis frame. This was sellotaped to a mirror, and two strips of plywood secured over the top to help keep the chassis frame true to the diagram.



Once I'd soldered the centre axle into position, the front was aligned using the coupling rods. The jig seems to help in the process as the axles look square to the frame. However I did use a small square to double check before and during soldering the hornblocks to the frame...

State of chassis at the end of the evening...

I feel I've had a reasonable few hours of modelling today. The next task is installing the crankpins into the wheels, then it's building the High Level gearbox before installing the wheels. Think I might take the chassis along to this week's Area Group Meeting for some constructive criticism and advice on the next couple of stages....