Roto Truck build!

Fifteen year old 'Modern' Meccano

Click on the picture to enlarge
and count the teeth!

Work is continuing on the Merry Mixer but that is all going to be a bit tedious for a few days and there is no point in showing you any of that until the repetitive stuff is done so I have been relegated to the kitchen table tonight. I thought I would have a go at building an old but unused set that I bought a while ago for the parts. So first job was to open all the packets an see what we have. I know the contents of this set have a good supply of useful bits including a couple of the 24t tri-axle pinions (these will mesh at 1/2inch centres with the 12t pinion making them very useful for compact gearboxes), lots of rod and strip connectors, 1 inch rods and a whole lot more. there is even a brass short coupling. Meccano were using fewer and fewer brass parts even then. Now they don't have any in the current range of available sets except for one... Anyone know what set that is? The rest of the set is full of other handy parts. Another bonus with this kit is the use of black bolts - something else that is thin on the ground at the moment.

Building commenced with the chassis. I will apologise upfront for the poor quality of snap-shot photography of the build bit as I said this is a 'Ralph's Table' job, so we are down to hand-held, built in flip up camera flash. But I think you will get the idea.    

The first stage is to build the chassis

Next the two lots of steering gear and racks are fitted. along with the side tanks. Make sure you fit the tanks on the correct side of the chassis - Please, don't ask me why I am telling you this! and this completes the first assembly. This is now put to one side while the cab is built.

First bit done!

The cab assembly is straightforward and makes good use of short rods and rod and strip connectors. This is where these sets excel. In the traditional progressive sets you only got one of these in the smaller sets and a No. 10 set only had four. There are 16 of them in this set!

Looks more like a roll-cage...

That's the second sub-assemble completed now the third and final assembly is just a case of bolting a few pieces to the cylinder. Add the gears that drive the steering racks to the chassis and it is read for final assembly.

Ready for assembly

The finished model is remarkably solid and has plenty of play value. I do wonder how many of these sets ever got built. The gears need a bit of setting up to get the steering to work properly and the tri-axle has to be positioned in the correct orientation. although there is an illustration that has an explanation mark in a triangle indicating that care is needed, it does not explain why. To the average child or parent trying to help this would be meaningless. That said I think this is a great little model and the set is full of useful bits so it will make its way into our building stock once we get around to dismantling it.

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Finished - Click on the picture to enlarge!

These sets are hard to find these days and we have had them for sale in Ralph's Shop in the past although not for a while now. They do appear, from time to time, on eBay, in the charity shops and at boot fairs, so keep your eyes open if you want one...

All it needs now is a driver - Click on the picture to enlarge!

Ralph.

Adding detail!

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Tonight, Sue has been detailing the cars. With twelve cars to do this is going to take some time. each car is fitted with five mini-strips each with three, 3/8 inch (9.5mm) bolts holding them to the back of the cars.

Sue has been detail adding to the back of each car

On the inside the nuts have all been aligned to give a neat finish - looks a bit like deep buttoning. I have been messing around with the main frame but I have not got very far so there is nothing to show you tonight, I'm afraid.

Lots of nuts!

More tomorrow!

Ralph

More of the same...

Here is a quick update and a couple of snap-shots of our progess tonight. It is now just a case of more of the same. Sue has been making more of the cars and experimenting with decoration - might be able to show some of that tomorrow.

Excuse me!  What are you doing there?

I have finished the first of the small spiders - only two more to go. The bush wheel on the top is not part of the model, it is there to prevent one of us poking it in our eye!

Getting there...

Now one of the spiders has been built I can start thinking about the centre column and the top of the top arms. but that is for tomorrow.

Ralph.  

Progress...

The build continues. We are still prototyping some of the main component parts at the moment. Working in threes and fours can cause problems but nothing that a bit of trial and error won't fix. The biggest problem is thinking in multiples if a component is used we have to make sure we have enough parts to make all the duplicate sub assemblies - all good fun!

Starting to come together...

Meanwhile over at Sue's corner of the table a production line is under way. Half way there and enough parts to finish the job. Note Sue's tools, poised for action. The '1958' steam engine is sitting there in readiness. The drive system is going to be interesting- but that will come later. 

Six down, Six to go!

That's it for tonight more to come - tomorrow? Maybe...

Any ideas yet?

Ralph.

A new model is born...

I find most of our models are the result of stepping up to a challenge. Simple things can get out of hand like the Funicular Railway to name but one. Sometimes the subject sparks an idea, as in this case. Over the past couple of months the guys over on the Meccano section of the Unofficial Mamod steam forum have been running a competition to build a steam powered model (or one that is capable of being steam powered).

The all pre-war steam saw (maybe not the bolts!)

Modern parts and the last version of the Meccano/Mamod steam engines

Pillar drill drive

I have entered a couple of models so far, pictured above. You can also see short videos of them running HERE. This time I am going to be a bit more imaginative. The subject is 'Fairground Model' So here we go. These models usually require large numbers of similar parts and lots of repetition, building numerous identical sub-assemblies. Luckily, Sue is more than happy to do the repetitive bits and enjoys adding all the detail. And then there are the nuts and bolts. we get through thousands of them! It is a good job we build and dismantle our models. Apart from the space they would take up, the cost of nuts and bolts would be prohibitive - and then there are the washers... doesn't do to start thinking too much.  Modern parts play a big role in our fairground ride model building, these days, along with using combinations of black and zinc bolts. It is the addition of all this detail that takes the time.

How may of those bits have we got, Sue?

Enough of all that talk -  I'm going back to the building! I will post some more progress later.

Do you know what it is yet?

Ralph

Here we go again!

On the road again - heading East...

There I was, minding my own business, when an e-mail arrived offering us a dealer's display model model of a traction engine. At first I thought we were being offered the usual standard size version on a par with our windmill. Then it dawned on me, this is the much bigger version, intended for display in the larger retailers. Built in the Meccano model room, these are not as common as its little brother. After a short negotiation, a deal was struck and we were on another road trip, this time to sunny Ipswitch! An early start got us through the Dartford Tunnel and into Ipswich by 8am. after finding it a nightmare to park anywhere nearby we ended up having carry a rather large model through the streets of Ipswich to some puzzled onlookers!

My! That's a lot bigger than it looked in the photograph!

Click on the picture to enlarge

It is going to need a bit of attention before we can take it to a show. but it is all there, just a bit grubby and neglected. It will need a good clean and a spot or rewiring. I suspect Sue will be raiding the dealer's stands at The Henley Gathering for some more light bulbs. The Motor and gearbox will have to be removed and serviced. It is making some strange noises when it is powered up at the moment. It did come with a type-written description (click on the picture to enlarge) which gives some background. So popular was the model, after many requests, building instructions were published in Meccano Magazine in the November and December 1969 issues. One of these models also featured on the cover of an earlier edition of the magazine. We are looking forward to getting this one back to display condition.

Ralph.

Three days in Ironbridge...

...at Meccanuity 2013

John Molden's Eurostar big wheel

Back in May, Sue and I attended Meccanuity 13 in Ironbridge, Shropshire. The event is run by the Telford and Ironbridge Meccano Society  (TIMS) and held in Enginuity, one of the Ironbridge museums.The three day event takes place over the first Bank Holiday weekend in May.

Now that bit goes there and...

Each year, the club sets a theme and this year the chosen subject was railway breakdown cranes. Sue and I did not get around to building model this year as time has been at a premium, especially at the beginning of the year. Our display consisted of a selection of a selection of Meccano-built steam toys, Sue's mini motorbike and our newly acquired modern display model motorbike.  Tony Wakefield's model of the iconic Mini is packed with detail and built using immaculate red and green Meccano.

Beautifully detailed Mini

Staying with the unusual, and slightly off topic (It's not Meccano!), this splendid model of an American car is based on a late 1970's Lincoin Mark V. A truly iconic car from the opposite end of the spectrum from the Mini. Large, angular and vulgar, it has a charm that typifies the mood of the late '70s and reminds me of all those imported TV cop dramas we all sat glued to in the days when we only had three or four channels to choose from!

Fancy trying to park that in the supermarket car park!

The show was well attended and as usual the evenings were spent sampling the local restaurants and discussing the world in general. Rather than fill the blog with lots of pictures from the event click HERE to go to the gallery of the event on the NZ Meccano website.

Ralph.

A couple of Steam Models

A lot of Meccano stuff has been going on over the past few months. I will be posting some stuff about that over the next few days but for now here are a couple of steam model videos of Steam powered workshop tools. I know the though of powering a single tool like this is unlikely in the real world but the models are demonstrating the first and last of the Meccano built-in engines. I know there were Meccano steam engines before the 1929 engine but they did not have the facility to be built in as these do.

The first short video shows one of our 1929 engines running a genuine Meccano saw blade, mounted on one of the pre-war flanged plates with the slot in it. As a kid, I remember wondering why some of the plates in my rather motley collection had slots in them. I have tried to use pre-war parts as far as possible in building this model. Even the gears in the model feature the early ratio of 2.8:1 being the now obsolete 56t gear and 20t pinion.

The second video show the last steam engine made to be built into Meccano models. This was the Mamod SP3. Mamod reintroduced their own branded version of the engine they were originally making for Meccano. the Mamod engines carry both Meccano and Mamod decals on either side of the fire box. Mamod engines were also fitted with a sight glass and a whistle. The were also painted grey instead of yellow. Here is one running a pillar drill. most of the components are modern Meccano in contrast to the model above.

The next thing I need to do is play with some video editing software. I have also discovered that one of Sue's fancy cameras will shoot HD video...

...I must take a closer look at this video lark. I have always been a still picture man myself but I suppose I had better catch up with the rest of the world and start posting some better looking videos!

Ralph.

My mini motorbike model

A couple of months ago, Ralph and I were looking at some photographs taken at an exhibition that somebody pointed us to on the Spanner II list. Amongst the models shown was a neat little motorbike that caught my eye so I thought I'd have a go at building it.

First thing to do was to find a nice clean 5½ x 2½ flanged plate. That is not as easy as it sounds. We have dozens of them but finding a nice looking one is a bit of a challenge. I ended up with a choice of three; a nice blue one a red one and a strange brown one that must have come from the Unicorn set. I decided to go with the red one - no surprise there then! After looking closely at the original picture, I gathered the rest of the parts together, as best I could, and started to build.  Rummaging around looking for parts seems to drive His Nibs mad - Tough, I like to have all the bits to hand before I build something.

I even found a good looking No.52 to display it on!

The build was quite fiddly and required another pair of hands in places - he comes in useful now and again! Getting to tighten the bolts and place some of the nuts required a few more tools than the spanner and screwdriver, the tools took up more space than the parts.

It made up into a very nice model when finished and looked the part. Ralph made me an oversized 'SUE 1' number plate, based on a 1 inch flat girder, to which I added some magnetic material to so it would stay in place without using a bolt.

I fitted it to its base and added one of my replica tin-plate flags to finish it off. Now for somthing a bit bigger...

Sue

Much better now!

I managed to get VirtualMec 2.0.2 to work much better with a lot of help from the VirtualMec Team - Thank you! and completed several small drawings including the roundabout. The whole idea, as far as I am concerned, is to design using VirtualMec and then build what has been designed.

In reality I found that building the models highlighted a few things that needed modifying. things that are easy in the virtual world sometimes don't work in reality. Bending in VirtualMec does not take into account that Meccano has holes in it and cannot be bent so easily in the real world. This is not a criticism, just an observation. The roundabout I showed being designed, in a previous post, has now been finished and Sue built the model to prove the plan.

Steam toy roundabout

It has been designed to be driven by a steam engine or hand operated. It is only a very simple model (intended for sale as a kit of parts for our steam customers over on RalphsShop.com ) The finished drawing has a few modifications incorporated after Sue finished the real model to account for the design changes deemed necessary during construction.

The finished drawing

VirtualMec is a very useful tool, I wish we had embraced it years ago. The learning curve is very easy to negotiate and a few hours work will have you up and running with a good level of competence. I have been using it for a couple of weeks or so now, and it is getting easer all the time.

Ralph.