Welder Woody

 At the Rocks By Rail Museum it is getting close to the opening of the  2024 season. It is advertised far and wide but one of the most effective forms of advertising are the banners that are put up on the nearby roads. For reasons that I cannot even remember I got this job when someone else could no longer do it. 

The banners themselves are normally attached to metal posts termed as lamp irons which are hammered into soft ground. One of the issues I had last year was that whilst the banners hooked over the bend in the post meant to hand a lamp from, the lower part of the banner could only be fastened loosely with a cable tie to the lower part of the post. In windy weather the banner would ride up the post making it difficult to read the banner. My solution, developed in my mind over the past year (Woody's ideas take time to ferment!) has always been to put a bracket onto the post so that the cable tie can be securely fastened and prevent the banner riding up the post. Today was the day that idea became reality - enter Welder Woody!

Starting with some scrap metal in the worm of some metal jointing strips.

Put it in the vice, take one large hammer and put a 90 degree bend in it.

Clean the surface to be welded with an angle grinder.

Take the lamp iron post and clean the rust where the bracket is to be welded to with an angle grinder.

Take a MIG welder, clamp the bracket to the right place on the post.

 

Allow one armature welder loose on the MIG and get a welded joint that will never win any beauty competitions but it is at least strong!

Take to bench and place in vice.

Use angle grinder to tidy up joint!

Test finished product! Well almost as I did not have a cable tie to hand but the bracket is in the right place and it should work making life easier this year too! Nice one Welder Woody! After congratulating myself I then went on to weld another 11 posts!

Meanwhile Alex continues work on the inside of Ketton No1 with rubbing down the control panel ready for a repaint. It reminded me of the pandemic seeing Alex in his mask but he is only being sensible with the dust that the sanding is creating.

Not an easy thing to sand!

Meanwhile John and Pete were trying to fight nature by resetting these concrete retaining slabs that had been pushed over by the vegetation roots that are in the bank behind them. Not a nice job but has to be done.

Whilst some of the wagons are out from a hidden siding I did spare a few minutes to take a closer look. These tipper wagons are fairly unique and still in a restorable condition.

I did not even know this bogie low loader was at the museum.

Restorable but that mobile compost heap needs to go!

And if there were ever any doubt as to the power of corrosion look at this!

Way beynd the skills of Welder Woody!

Being able to see the floor!

Of the many projects that I would like to complete this year and that Mrs. Woody has decreed will be completed is the clear out of the garage. Garages are very handy places to store items that you are of the view are no longer suitable to be in the house or garden but equally are of the view that they are too good to be got rid of or may well come in handy some day! The garage has also played host to the sorting of items left by my parents so has over the last few years seen a big turn over of items but has always looked like this picture of it in 2020.

 Moving on to now it looks like this. You can actually see some of the floor now!!!!

There is still a lot that needs to go but eBay sales and the recycling centre have seen a lot of items leave, leaving clear floor space! The sense of space is quite liberating and makes up for all the work that has gone into getting this far. Along with my clearing out of magazines from the Man Cave and several other decluttering operations there is now a lot less stuff in WMD HQ although Mrs. Woody maintains more needs to go! As long as she does not mean me too!

Scania coming together - but needs more glue!!

Yes it is coming together after 2 years on the shelf. The windscreen is in, well nearly as I noticed when I uploaded the photos that it has sprung out on one corner so more glue required! The indicator lenses are fitted and putting the front panel on the main cab together with the roof gives a good idea of the finished product. Just have to paint the chrome windscreen wipers black and fit the doors and the door mirrors and that should be it - hopefully! Now where is the glue.....

 

The Scania 141LB comes back on the bench and a surprising discovery!

 In my quest to finish off projects the Heller Scania 141 LB has come off the shelf after being placed on 2 years ago and onto the workbench. The biggest problem with getting back into a stalled project is finding out just where you got to so some time was taken to establish that. 

So far I have painted the windscreen surround black to represent the rubber holding it to the cab and painted silver the backing to the light lenses that need to be fitted.

I had a clear out of some rubbish and finished kit boxes one of them being the box for the Trumpeter Grille30 30.5cm(Grw) L/15 Mörser "Bär",

I always take a picture of the box cover for reasons I never really know! However in opening the box lid out to be flat I discovered these two odd pictures hidden by the folds in the box.

Quite what soft toys and fruit and veg have to do with printing the box art for a military vehicle I just cannot work out but it was a surprising discovery!

Almost there!

My famous last words but I can report that the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas truck kit is just about there! 

The shortened side underrun guard is fitted and looks much better than the original. 

The sun visor is fitted. 

The mirrors are fitted. 

The windscreen wipers are fitted. 

All I need to do is touch in some of the black parts on the mirrors and wipers and glue the cargo body to the chassis so almost there!!!! I know I can do it!

Well I never!

Mrs. Woody persuaded me to have a look at the new craft department that had been opened in a nearby garden centre. I didn't really need persuading so off we went. I'm not sure what I was expecting but given that both Hobbycraft and The Range here in the UK already have well stocked shelves full of a wide range of hobby items I thought that anyone competing with those types of retailer would at least have an extensive range of items. Not so though! However there were a few things that did catch my eye and give me that 'Well I never' moment. It is interesting to note the divergence of Hornby Hobbies into other spheres of products with these jigsaws! Well I never!

I must admit compared to other jigsaws the price for this rather large 3000 piece spitfire at £30 seems reasonable especially as you get the 1/72 kit included. The 1000 piece kits were a penny under £15 which again was reasonable. They may be reasonable but I need to reason with myself that I don't have a reason for buying one!

On another 'Well I never' matter my bike ride today was a bit strange with my right foot never feeling secure in the pedal. My cycling shoes have plastic plates that clip into the pedals meaning your shoe is securely fastened to the pedal. You release your shoe by twisting it to unclip the plate. It sounds complex but it isn't once you are used to it. I got home and had a look at the plate. As you can see compared to the new plate which is now fitted, the old has literally worn out - Well I never!

When parts don't look right.

Despite everything else that has been going on, my job of finishing the Italeri DAF 95 Canvas truck has progressed - just not as quickly as I had planned!

I have started with fitting the side underrun guards which has inherent problems. When Italeri produce a kit like the DAF Canvas truck, the basically modify one of their tractor unit kits and add the body from one of their trailer kits. The result is that not everything fits as it should and the guards are an example.

On the one side the kit part fits nicely once I added some extra bracing from plastic strip and angle so that it mounted to the bottom of the cargo body securely. It just needs painting black now that it is mounted.

But on the other side there is no way that it looks right as it covers half the fuel tank and shrouds the filler cap.

To cure this, Mr. Saw came out and sectioned the part.

Out of the remains a shorter guard was fabricated which once smoothed and painted should do the job nicely!

For spares or repair and it all got very wet!

For spares or repairs is the advert I would put on this lot, which if you read last weeks post (available here) are the remains of the wagon that broke up as it was being moved! Off the track the remains are now being stored awaiting their fate!

A day at the Rocks by Rail Museum today where the plan was to give the Euclid dump truck a wash down. Rob had got the pressure washer out, filled a large water container and rigged up a power supply. Now at the best of times water and washing generally have some wetting probability for those engaged in the task. Add a pressure washer to the mix and the probability of wetness goes up and then add rain, heavy rain at that, and it is just inevitable that those engaged are going to get wet! However there is a point at which you get so wet you just carry on as you have already got wet and cannot get any wetter! So it was hat Rob, John, Pete and myself got soaked but the Euclid looked a lot better.

John surveys the cleaning products - I don't think my suggestion for polishing and waxing the paintwork after washing went down too well!

Rob arrives with the water and pressure washer. We got water pressure by raising the water container up in the air - clever!

Rob's enthusiasm sees him clambering all over to get the dirt off.

even to the point of getting inside the dump body - I did suggest we take the ladder away and leave him in there!

It may not have been muddy dirty but the amount of dirt that had just gathered on the truck from the weather shows in this picture where the pressure washer has cut through to reveal clean paintwork and rust!

What does the inside of the tipper body look like - well here is a photo but without Rob in it!

Finished and cleaner looking. Rob mentioned painting but that is definitely a job for a dry day!

Flushed or should that be soaked, with the success of cleaning the Euclid, Rob suggested doing the same with the drag line. We started but as the rain got heavier the enthusiasm wained and we called it a day!

This is how wet it was getting with flood water everywhere.

And to think I could have been inside in the dry helping Pam paint Harriot the JCB

Or Alex paint the ceiling of the cab of Ketton No1.

Or David and John fitting a makers plate to DE5.

Or Pete cleaning up a bench drill. Even Riley the dog is sensible enough to be inside - but not me!