The Mark I Merry Mixer

Don't forget, you can click on the photographs to enlarge them! 

That is going to need a bit of work...

Today we managed to get the Merry Mixer together for the first time. I was intending to take it to The Henley Gathering tomorrow but It is not ready for that yet. Although it looks reasonable in the pictures it is far too flimsy to take to a meeting (or should I say Gathering?) in its current state.

Time for a bit of a rethink. I originally decided to build it with three arms, just to make it a but different. That has causes all sorts of problems attempting to get it to look right and make it it rigid. The other problem is the ball race - it's too small for a model this size so I will have to redesign that. I have been messing about for the past few days tiring to make a bit of bad design good. In the end. I have decided to do what I should of done a week ago, start again! Not the whole model just the centre column and the (now) four drive arms.

Initial assembly of the main components shows it need some work

Sue is going to build another spider and seats - good job I sprayed up and extra 4 inch circular plate the other day when Sue wanted one for the tree she built then. It doesn't matter how much Meccano we collect there is always something else we need. Talking of which, I had better make a list of stuff to buy tomorrow. After my attempts at spraying myself red, the other day, I had better get another can of light red... and I will need some large axle parts... and...

The trouble with this model, as it stands, is it lack of a good design to start with. I started to build before I had thought trough the mechanics, trying to save time by working around the problems as they arose.

No, it just doesn't look right...

Due to the weight of the spiders and the flimsy construction of the lower arms all the weight has to be carried by the upper arms which now look out of proportion to the rest of the model. There comes a time, with a model lke this, that a deep breath needs to be drawn and a lot of rebuilding has to take place - but that is the fun bit - is it not?

Ralph.