An adventure in brass

[Schraddel]

Hello!
Some weeks ago someone asked me to built a crane for his layout, especially to to the soldering work.
I was warned by a couple of friends, that this kit is nearly unbuiltable never will fit right. I saw the word "nearly" and decided to make a try.

Prototype information:
These are pictures to show the actual prototype whist still exists today:
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In earlier times this crane was used for coaling steam locomotives.

The 1:87 crane was a kit of KHK Modellbau and is notorious for it's difficulties to built. The whole kit came in an flat envelope containing mostly etched brass parts out of 0.3mm brass sheet. And in some etched areas the thickness was only 0.1mm. A very thin and fragile construction and the main challenge was creating out of a pile of flimsy "flat wires" a stable 3-dimensional structure.
Engine house and driver's cabin were made out of thin lasercut ply wood and paper. That was not my task to built, only the soldering work.


The first start was building the base platform, visible right above. The kit instructions were not very helpful because it contained a lot of misttakes and vagues. And to make things worse bout noting fitted here. Nearly all of the parts had to be reworked, e.g. the crossmembers onto the underside of the platform were all a little bit too long, so that they did'nt fit as etched. All of them had to be shortened a little bit to fit in the right place and in the right angle.
Right of the main platform ist the platform für the driver's cab.
Below a tool chest.
And in this little clear plastic box the rope dics and the wheels on which the main platform should rotate.
In the middle the door an steps leading from the main platform to the cab platform. All was in pieces and was solderd together.
Left bottom the right side trusswork of the jib.
Middle the left side trussword of the jib with some crossmembers mounted.
Above the railings for the ladder (see prototype photos)


A nearer look to the right side of the jib. The trusswork of the bottom side is mounted and some of the crossmember trussworks.
The structure is still flimsy and has to be handled extreme carfully.


The structure was turned 180° to show the outer side.
Here onto the side of the ladder the railing have to be soldered.

All the soldering waas done with my 25W electric iron.

To be continued

Lutz

[cnrglen]

Impressive! Soldering is one of those lost arts that fewer of us know.

[Mr Fixit]

Oh my lordy Schraddel, what have you got yourself into.
Talk about a fiddly painstaking job.
Do you know any friendly spiders that can solder? They might be a big help.
It is very surprising that the prototype crane is still standing, albeit slowly rusting away.
I suspect that this will be one of those jobs that when it gets frustrating, you will have to stop and walk away for a little while to cool down and re-compose yourself.
Good Luck and may you have the patience of a saint.

Mark
It will be interesting to watch though.

Edit; I just realised that this model is made from brass sheet which is thinner than the mig wire for my mig welder which is 0.8 mm. Oh dear me.

[AF350]

Impressive! Soldering is one of those lost arts that fewer of us know.

I can solder electronic parts but have no experience soldering brass parts, I tried to make my own resistance solder getup and made only two solder joints before the resistance getup self destructed

Anyone use any of the resistance soldering stations sold by micro mark? I am thinking about getting one also may get a milling machine as well down the road.

I placed an order for a book on scratch building locomotives the example the book uses is an OO gauge British outline small locomotive but any trick or technique with a little work can transfer over into other scales and North American prototypes. Also in the current issue of O Scale Resource there is an article about a modeler who built several O scale Canadian steam locomotives, I found some ideas and a list of tools that make it easier starting out. Hope the book comes in soon as I always wanted to build a locomotive from scratch.

[Schraddel]

Yes folks, i agree and have had several cool down phases to refit my nerves before going And because this is a family forum, this is not the right place to post abuisve and cursing words about burnt fingers... Instead going praying to the lord was the better way.
About 2 hours was the maximum time you could work uninterrupted on this project before getting nuts.


Here the upper trusswork was fitted. The railing too. I used a lot of soldering tin to create aditional stiffness. The trusswork structure is still fragile.
The top an the middle rope dics are mounted onto thies axles an to the left side into thie bearings. They are not moveable because this crane will be used only for static display.
The platforms are mounted together also. Here was one of the many "not fitting" expieriences, so i had to rework the parts until they fit.





The "not fitting" area after reworking.





A closer look to the upper part of the outrigger, left side trusswork still not mounted yet.
The triangle structure is part of the scale which was fitted onto the prototype. So every bit of the clamshell could be weighted and added together to get the sum of the coal loaded into the locomotive's tender.




At least the left side trusswork was soldered onto and the outrigger was mounted onto the main platform. Another chapter of "not fitting".
The structure of the became much more stable after this was done.
In the background part of the rather cryptic kit instructions, i does'nt matter if in German or in English written, cryptic is cryptic.


To be continued

Lutz

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Wow, and I though solding together all that catenary was bad! This looks like a nightmare, though is shaping up to be VERY impressive.


I get the feeling every once in a while, that some manufacturers make kits like this that they know really don't fit, then slap the word "Craftsmen" as an excuse for why the kit is unnecessarily difficult, or the instructions vague.

[teejay]

Most impressive , it looks like a very difficult kit . I built two brass kits ( a Backwoods geared loco and a CNR caboose ) and you do have to practice soldering scrap pieces for a while , if you are new to soldering . It does take a certain "feel" and I found it to be a lot of fun in the end . Nice work !

[Mr Fixit]

Schraddel, I think that maybe work on the crane for one hour and then take the dog for a walk for 20 minutes will be the only way to get through this kit without going cuckoo clock crazy.

Do you have any thick gardening gloves or the like? A damp sponge may also help as well as some small weights and drawing pins.

I do think that you are doing a great job and I am glad you are sharing it with us.
Mark

[Schraddel]

Hello!

You asked me and i will answer.
This is my soldering equipment:

- A 6W micro soldering iron with a needle like tip; this is for 12V. This is specially for soldering electronis, e.g. soldering wires onto a decoder PCB.
- 25W unversal iron for all purposes, the most used one. The soldering job for the crane was done with this iron.
- 80W for bigger jobs like soldering on brass locos were only sheet metal is involved
- A micro torch, mostly used when brass castings have to be soldered onto brass locos or for repair jobs on brass were you have to put a huge amount of heat very quick concentrated on a small spot.
- 180W, a pre war iron out of the 1930's. A estate from my grandpa. For the more coarse jobs like soldering battery pole clamps on my tractor. Offical called in German a Löthammer (my attempt to translate: "soldering hammer"). 2 hours waiting until heated up, then solder and then wait about 3 to 3.5 hours until it has cooled down... :wait:
- Rosin cored soldering wire 0.5 , 1.0 and 1.5 mm diameters
- Lötfett (flux paste), after soldering the leftovers have to be washed with hot water and detergent to avoid further corrosion. Not for soldering electronics!
- Clamps for fixing the parts to be soldered; if done right it avoids burnt fingertips.
- Not shown are some pliers used for holding hot parts
Thats's all.







For that the crane with it's outrigger is in balance, i mounted a counter weight made out of a piece of lead.




The upper end of the outrigger with the service platform mounted.




The last of the rope discs which are beared onto an own trusswork inside the outrigger's trusswork.
The counterweight and the rear part of the outrigger will later be inside the engine house.

To be continued

Lutz

[BR60103]

My father did radar work for the Air Force in the 1940s. He was on an island in the Indian Ocean. Their soldering equipment was a real iron, heated in a gas stove and then they had to run out to the aircraft before it cooled.

[Schraddel]

David, my grandpa used this electric iron for soldering jobs on automobiles. He told me before he got it, he had to act like your father too. Heating the iron in the oven inside the house and running with the red hot iron out of the house to the car.


One of the next tasks was to solder the undercarriage. Two etched side members, a bottom frame, four double flanged wheels and the axles for it was a rather easy job to do.
More trickier was the turntable right of the undercarriage. This were 4 plain flat parts in kit form. Two somewhat halfmoons have to be put together to made the base. Two stripes have to be formed and soldered to form a perfect circle and this circle have to be soldered onto the base to made the circle rail for the turntable.
It reads complicated and it was complicated.




And yes it will turn.
And also a lot of solder needed to get a stable structure and to fill small gaps. This is the underside and will be not visible when the crane is mounted on the layout.





The next task was to solder all the tiny gusset plates onto the trusswork. A work which caused the most of my "Kraftausdrücke" which i will not publish here.
The lower balance beam for the scale and a connecting rod to the upper one was also fitted. From the rear end a connecting rod will go right thru the roof of the drivers cab direct to the scale mechanism.





A look from the side to show the two balancer beams.
Here in the visible areas the excess soldering tin will be cleaned later. Remember some of the parts have a thickness of only 0.1mm (app. 0.004")
So please don't cough against your screen ...








Thank you for watching.
To be continued.

Lutz

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Yeah, this thing is giving me nightmares and I'm not even building it!

I have a soldering iron for almost every decade, including a few of the kind you have to cook first! Fortunately, I'm not forced to use them.

I wonder a if a resistance soldering setup would make this job easier? I keep thinking about investing in one myself to do the catenary, and I can't help but wonder if that would make this job easier too.

[doctorwayne]

While resistance soldering would have made this job easier, I think that the improper fit of the parts would have been taxing enough.
If you're using only a soldering iron, size it to the task at hand - this light gauge brass doesn't require a lot of wattage. I like to pre-clean all surfaces to be soldered with fine sandpaper - the wet/dry type, used dry, and about #600 or finer works well - then, where possible, pre-tin the contact points. This allows you to use needle files to remove any excess solder before beginning the actual construction process.
Once assembly begins, clamp or pin the parts to be joined in proper alignment, and a quick touch of the hot iron will make a strong joint. Before moving on to the next one, place a small wad of wet tissue or paper towel over the just-made joint - this will ensure that heating the next contact point won't cause the previous one to separate. The wetted material can follow along as you work, but make sure, as other pieces are added, that all previously-made joints are thermally isolated from the point where you're working. This should result in a strong assembly needing little final clean-up.

The parts for that turntable should have been a one-piece full ring etched from a sheet of brass, with a second piece of strip to form the rim. It then would have been relatively simple to pin the parts in place to solder the two pieces together, with no worry about having to make sure that it was truly round. Lutz, I admire your patience for getting that together.

Wayne

[Mr Fixit]

[quote="Green_Elite_Cab"]Yeah, this thing is giving me nightmares and I'm not even building it!

GEC, I think that could we be what we are all thinking as we nervously watch Schraddel go about this project.

When you consider that he is doing this for a friend, man that is putting your friendship to the test. :wait:

I sure hope that this friend appreciates your efforts Schraddel and rewards your like so, with suitable compensation in the form of your favourite beverage[s] or brewskis.

Still keep up the good work. We are all watching from your corner.

Mark
Just glad Im not making this thing.

[Schraddel]

Hi Folks!
My prefered beverage is Tea. East Frisian Tea, mainly. That is an blend of different Assam teas, similar to English Breakfast, but a still little stronger.
There are 2 main types of this tea:
1. (Fish-) Cutter Tea
2. Tractor Tea
And i prefer the Tractor Tea, you need that man, to keep your nerves bundled when doing such fuzzy work.
And no, not this dusty tea bag stuff.
I prefer pouring loose tea with boiling water and then let it soak for 3 minutes. Two third of the tea cup will befilled with tea and the last third with whole milk.









One of the last steps was to make the clamshell. The clamshell is not moveable and in the kit there are alternate parts for an fully open or a closed version. But you have to decide if open or close as the kit contains only parts for one version.
Here the difficulties were to make the correct rounding of the upper third of the outer clamshell sheets.




A look from the underside, here a lot of solder was used too to get things right.
The axle for the rope discs is diagonal and the discs are not moveable because of a flat etched "axle". This was predicted by the kit. I have the discs not soldered onto the flat axle because when the ropework will be done after painting. It will be easier to fit the yarn.









The very last work for me was to clean up the structure and to remove excess solder.

My part of the work on this crane was done now. The owner wants to do the rest of the work by himself.
My task was only to do the soldering work.
There is still a lot of work left:
- completing the undercarriage. This will be done with styrene sheet and some etched parts by glueing.
- engine hose, a lasercut out of thin plywood and cardboard
- counterweight, not the lead block i have mounted, but the modelled concrete block at the rear end of the engine house
- diver's cab, also a lasercut
- some details to fit, like the door with stairway for the driver's cab which i have prefabricated
- paintwork
- ropework (not my nerves )


I hope you have enjoyed my postings, thank you for watching.

Lutz