There are some little notches in the sides of the cab front that I wanted to cut out now, while things are still square and flat. Once I solder the windows and doors on the front, it won’t be flat. So now seemed like the time to do it.
I’ve used some 1/8” plate on either side of the piece to help provide some rigidity to the steel sheet. Regardless, I took many very light cuts to make this 3/16” wide notch.
Then I made an even tinier 3/32” notch in the middle. This notch is to give some room for the roof pivot pins. I notched both sides of the cab front like this.
Next, I laid the cab front down and proceeded to center mark out all the holes that needed to be drilled. To make sure I was putting the solder holder screw holes in the right place, I lined the parts up to the scribed lines on the cab front. It’s a good thing I did that – the calculated position didn't line up with the hole in the door! As it turns out, the position I'd calculated for the cab front was right. However, I’d miscalculated the X coordinate by 1/16” on the doors! But since the doors were already drilled, I decided to make THEM the right ones and change the position of the holes on the cab front to match. Good catch, but a dumb mistake.
Here I’ve gotten all the holes drilled in the cab front. There are more than it looks like! I also drilled a hole in the center of the boiler opening and for the bump for the throttle neck. Figured it doesn’t hurt and they should come in handy if I have to reregister the part for other ops later.
Then I tapped the solder screw holes and test fit everything together. Looks about right!
For soldering, I thought I’d try whetting the backside of the windows and doors. I’m not sure I did a great job here, but it was as good as I could get. I just couldn't seem to figure out how to get the solder to spread evenly across the surface.
Then I set it all up to solder it together.
It took me a couple of tries, but I think it came out OK. Guess we’ll see. It’s not really as satisfying as silver soldering, that’s for sure.
Next, I’ll cut out all four windows, then move on to the boiler cutout and the roof line.
Kim
