20 model set, an alternative model...

Trike!

Following on from the 15 model set alternative model I just had to have a go at the 20 model set. Out of the three new Multimodel sets (see HERE) this seems to be the one that most people seem to like. Last weekend at Blists Hill, there was a little boy who came up to the display and picked up the made up 20 model racing car and really didn't want to put it down. Several heart felt pleas, first to his mum and then his dad, only secured the release of the model when a promise to visit the local Smyths Toys was secured from both parents. At one point I thought the little boy might insist on a written agreement so determined was he! It is encouraging to see such passion from one so young.

Complete with spare wheel...

Meccano seem determined to use as many parts as possible, including the motor, in every model they show on the back of the box. Why? I have long championed the use of fewer parts when making alternative models. This model is no exception. the most obvious omission is the motor. I have also left a sprinkling of parts and fixings in the box.

Shiny chrome (well, zinc) bumpers

 I started from the back. the formed braces girders will just about bolt together  for a better looking structure to represent the rear of the trike. Those little rubbery grips that everybody loves so much have been used here to secure the rods that make up the bumper rods in place as well as give the hand grips some... well, grip! This trick has steering albeit limited just like some of the real 'chopped' trikes.

A few gears, strategically placed, allude to an engine

 Again this model is not meant to be a scale model but it is obvious what it is supposed to be, and no, I have not motorised it even though the set does contain a motor. I am reasonably pleased with this one and it goes to show that this set does have some mileage. The little boy I mentioned earlier could obviously see the potential - maybe one day he will be sitting down reminiscing about that first Meccano set...

Click here to see and alternative model from the15 model set>>>

Ralph.

Look what I found...

...inside the new 15 model, Multimodels set

 

Dragster - a realistic model?

The three new Multimodels sets are a strange collection of models mainly in the style of the earlier sets they are based on. A few of them are very odd looking models indeed! For a long time Meccano have produced a lot of fantasy models that resemble very little. The recent 3 and 10 model sets bucked this trend with some very realistic and recognisable offerings. However, the 15 model set's box-art model from the latest release is, well, horrible. Sorry Meccano but it just is! There is a reasonably good looking helicopter but I suspect this does not use as many parts as the chosen box model. I have already looked at what you get in this set, in THIS POST.

Rear view of the dragster

Now it is time to have ago at building something. The set has a fair selection of parts including a good mix of old and new. It is worth noting that most if not all the new parts are metal. The overindulgence of plastic parts has been curtailed recently and although this set has its share of plastic parts, they are all moulded in a sober light grey colour.

Simplified details give the look with limited parts

My model uses a good number of parts but not all, click on any of the pictures to enlarge them and see more detail. The desire to use as close as possible to every part in the box, seems to be part of the model designer's remit for current sets. The model I have built uses only the parts required to make the model look something like what it is representing. Okay, this is not a scale model but more of a representation of the prototype. If the viewer recognises the model for what it is supposed to be, the job is done. The Engine is a big part of the 'look' so it is fashioned to suggest a 'V' configured engine with a couple of carburettors between the banks of cylinders. 

Parachute pack, rear differential and exhaust pipes or
a pulley, pinion and a couple of rods!

It only needs the suggestion of the real thing to make it work. Meccano models of old have always been so. The models from the old manuals used these techniques to make the models believable. Some were more successful than others, more often than not it was perfectly possible to identify the model designers target.

The dished triangular plate hints at the seat

I am not saying my model is perfect, it is not, but at least most people looking at it will know what it is supposed to be - I hope!

Next up I will have a go at making something new from the new 20 models set. Making models from a restricted number of parts is interesting and a nice diversion from the big projects. these models are being built on the kitchen table with just what is supplied in the box - a sort of solo Meccano challenge. It is good fun too!

Click here to see and alternative model from the 20 model set>>>

Ralph.

New plate bender...

...Click on any photograph to enlarge the image

Plates being bent along the width

As I posted here on our blog (see HERE) a couple of days ago, Stuart Borrill has introduced a set of new plate rollers, these new 6 inch long rollers are made to the same high standard as the shorter 3 inch versions that have been around for some time. Our original plate rolling machine has served us well for years and will continue to do so, even if it is looking a bit tired these days.

The original machine will only roll most plates along their length

The wider machine has a new trick!

The new machine is of slightly different design to the original machine. At the time I built the narrower version, I did not have the supply of parts available to me today, so I made do with what I had. With this machine I have used brass posts (short threaded couplings (P/N A176) that support rods. Running on these are short couplings (P/N 63c) that support the legs holding the rollers.

The slider

A threaded pin joins the leg to the short coupling. this is then actuated by one end of a fork built up from a 4½ inch angle girder and two 1 inch x 1 inch brackets. I tried using a rod to join the short couplings but that just caused the couplings to jam on the rods as it is impossible to keep them both aligned perfectly. In the end I decided to let the short couplings find their own way along the rod independently from any solid connection - works fine!

The 'nut'

A 5-hole coupling (P/N 63g - again available from Stuart Borrill) is bolted to the angle girder via its outer threaded holes and used as the 'nut' for the threaded rod adjuster. There are many ways of achieving this, I just happened to have one of these couplings to hand. It may get 'requisitioned' if it is required for a model.  The angle bracket makes it much easier to fix the 'nut'' and now looking at the photograph,as I type this, a threaded boss would do a good job here if you don't want to use a useful lump of brass. There is always the threaded strips, either the sought after Meccano versions or the extended range items. I am sure there are several alternatives to my solution.

The winding end

 The screwed rod is terminated in a threaded coupling and extended with a short standard rod. this passes through the hole in the top of a standard length threaded coupling and restrained using a couple of collars. a bush wheel and long threaded pin make a suitable crank. The standard threaded coupling is strengthened by short standard rod passed through it and a pair of short threaded couplings fixed either side.

Hand-wheel and gears

The rollers are arranged so the one with the long extension is uppermost in the 'A' frame with the other two positioned in adjacent holes at either side.  A 19t pinion is added to each end of the three rollers. In addition, a 2 inch pulley (with a tyre fitted) makes a suitable hand-wheel and it is fitted to the long extension on the top roller.

The new roller has a strip-built base

The strip base is fitted with rubber non-slip feet made from the push-on rubber tyres that we all have boxes of looking for a use. I have only had a chance to try bending a couple of plates but so far so good. I wish we had this machine when Sue made her racing car.

The bonnet plates would have been an ideal candidate for this machine

 Details of Sue's Racing car build can be found HERE. I am sure we will find many other uses for this machine. and as with the other machine it will flatten out all but the most heavily creased plates, a job the original machine has been doing admirably for many years.

Stuarts Borrill's parts...

I have been talking about Stuarts parts for years both here, on our blog, and on our website. I have no connection with Stuart other than being a very satisfied customer. Nothing is too much trouble and his prompt service is second to none. Stuart has changed his website address since those early posts and I have tried to update them where I can but I may have missed the odd one here or there. If you find a broken link on our pages please let me know and I will fix it.

If you want to see Stuart's range of parts or contact him for a quote for bespoke parts click HERE.

Ralph.

Back to some real Meccanoing...

The past few months have been taken up with  looking at new sets and messing around with small models. Next weekend is The Henley Gathering and it is about time we got back to some serious modelling. That gives us just about a week to get something built. My aim is to build a steam car based on an article I have seen in an old Meccano Magazine. Nothing too hard here, it is just a bit of fun and will complement my Steam Wagon.

Fun project aside there are a couple other things that have taken a step forward today after a visit from the postman. We are always telling ourselves that we have more than enough Meccano but for some reason it keeps arriving or following us home from meetings and shows...

New 6 inch plate bending rollers

Today a nice slim package arrived from Stuart Borrill containing some very interesting parts. First a set of silver steel plate bending rollers. I. know we already have a set built into our bending machine we built several years ago, but these are special. This new set of rollers is one of Stuart's latest creations - they are 6 inches long. Now I will be able to form 3½,4½ and 5½ inch plates along their length without having to resort to using the slip rollers I have in the workshop. There is something rather satisfying about using Meccano built tools/machines.

Now all I have to do is design a new bending machine to make good use of these new rollers. The old bending machine was built several years ago and the design was constrained by the building stock available at the time. See HERE.

The original bending machine  - This picture was taken just after it was built

While I am at it I might as well give the original one a makeover too as it is getting a bit sloppy. The holes that journal the rollers get misshapen after a lot of use so stripping it down and reversing the strips will improve things considerably. I will post some pictures of the new machine in a day or so.

Remember the Merry Mixer?

Yes it is still in production, it has just been 'mothballed' for most of this year while other things have taken our attention.  The drive system has been up for debate and the latest idea is to follow the prototype and used a friction drive to the rotating spiders that carry the seats. Making a compact reduction drive at the end of the arm has been a sticking point but now Stuart Borrill has added a very nicely made 38t contrate to his list I have another option.  

Solid brass 38t contrates

Looks like it will be a weekend of building for a change. Again I will update progress and let you know how it goes.

Ralph.

The new 15 model set...

...or should that be the 10+5?

Confused? Well we were. I first saw this set at the London Toy Fair in January. You will find details of that visit HERE. Then it was described as a 12 model set. The display model was a helicopter, and to be fair it looked like a good model. Along with the other two models, recently released, they were somewhat overshadowed by the the superb, all new, 3 and 10 model sets. See HERE.

The back of the box for new 15 model set

I managed to get hold of pre-production model and a mock-up box when we broke-down the Meccano stand at Skegness a few weeks ago. The box is just a plain white box with a mock-up of the front of the box-art stuck to the front so we could not see all the 15 models. If I had looked closer, I would have realised that most of the models pictured on the front were from the old black and zinc 10 model set that dates from Spring 2010. I reviewed that set at the time HERE. It was the first of the new generation of Multimodel sets and incorporated some of the new parts that are now included in all the latter sets. The new 15 model set is an extended version of this set. Click on the pictures below to enlarge them making it easer to study the content.

This much of the set is what you got in the old 10 model set

There is a fair bit more in this set

Of the 15 models shown on the box, there are instructions for five new models included in the manual with a further ten available for download (soon) from the Meccano.com website. Of these, five are new and the other five are from the original ten set. This is nothing new. Meccano have been reissuing and upgrading sets for years. The current Super Construction set was first issues as the Anniversary crane set over a decade ago and is still a popular set today. The old 50 model set is an extension of the old 40 model set (affectionately known as the 'Elephant' set). We were talking about this on the Rust Bucket forum this week and we did investigate the possibility of progression between the sets and although it is true between the 40 and 50 sets it does not appear to be the case anywhere else in the original Motion System (later to be renamed Multimodels) sets.

If you think about it, this is what the old progressive sets we all love so much did. The only difference is you can't today buy the 'A' (or later the 'X') set to make one set up to another. We can all bemoan the passing of the old sets of our youth but that was then and this is now, Today's modern world and especially Meccano's Target market have changed. Modern Meccano has changed with the market, we may not like some of it but it is wise to consider the current situation for what it is. If Meccano are to survive they cannot do so by catering for a small number of old fuds like us. They have to sell millions of sets, with very tightly controlled costings, to make it viable globally. We have to look at the current offerings for what they are and maybe reverse our thinking.  Sue and I consider our collection as the centre of our Meccano universe and we add to it without thinking about it. The suppliers have changed. Today, if I want parts, I think of the second hand and replica dealers, and of course, eBay. We buy new sets as they come out (most of the time) out of curiosity to see what might be useful. We are building a collection of building parts, not sets.

The box art aeroplane - a bit odd looking?

I digress. This new 15 model set is showing lots of potential. Venturing past the box-art aeroplane, that looks very strange, the set contains a good selection of parts so it should be possible to build something a little more realistic. This set has its ancestry firmly rooted in the 1990s and even the new models seem to follow that theme of fantasy - Now I wonder what else we can build with these parts...

...It has just occurred to me that you can also build the other five models from the old black 10 model set. The instructions for old 10 model set are are available for download HERE (clicking this link will download a11.2Mb .pdf file of the instruction book to your computer).

To see an alternative model built with the parts in this set, click HERE.

Ralph