Good morning. I have a pair of cast coach bogies - they are one piece castings, and would appreciate any advice regarding drilling holes for fitting wheel sets. I cannot hold the drill vertically, because the other side of the bogie is in the way. I suppose the only option is to drill each hole from the outside, then fill the outside hole? Hope this makes sense!
Can you leave them as dummy outside bearings and fabricate a bracket with inside bearings, like Slaters do on their O-scale 4-wheel carriages?
Graeme,
If you do contemplate this method, it was used many years ago by a very good wagon builder. But in his case, he tapped the holes in the axleboxes and inserted short brass grub screws which had dimples on their inner ends. Using pinpoint axles, he then had adjustable pinpoint bearings which, when he had them adjusted properly, could be covered over with plastic putty or whatever. You just have a bit of a fiddle making or obtaining small brass grub screws (cut ends off longer screws) and making recesses in the ends for the pin points of the axles (careful marking with a centre punch?).
Jim.
How well do you know your dentist? His drill bit is at right angles to the handle and will just fit into an OO bogie.
Alan
In message , Alan P Dawes writes
Not *that* well :-)
Thanks for all the suggestions - I particularly like Jim's brass grub screws, although should, perhaps, have mention two pertinent facts. The gauge is 0, and fine it ain't. We are talking tinplate, not finescale. However, the idea of drilling holes from the outside, tapping (4BA, or thereabouts, at a guess), and using a home made brass grub screw does appeal. The inner end of the screw would not need a dimple, as axle ends are blunt. Tinplate axles are crude, but work.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.