Chapter 5.14 – Dummy Side PlatesThe last parts for the Tender Tank (Chapter 5) are the Dummy Side Plates. These are made from 0.040” brass sheet. But before I went cutting any brass, I wanted to make a cardboard template so that I could adjust the size and shape as needed to fit my tender.
Since I didn’t have a piece of cardboard large enough, I taped together several smaller pieces. These were just the backs of pads of paper or something – nothing too fancy. Then I marked out the basic shape, cut it out, and trimmed it up to fit the way I wanted it to.
Here’s my template:
And here it is placed on the side of the tender:
Then I laid them out two of them on the brass sheet. Using the template made it easier to optimize the brass stock, which is important with how expensive that stuff is!
It was too big to cut on my HF 4x6 band saw so I used the reciprocal saw. It works well and cuts fairly fast but you have to leave a healthy margin because it's not overly accurate (to say the least).
I was able to take that to the bandsaw and cut the two pieces apart.
Then I used double-sided sticky tape to stick the two pieces together for the final shaping.
And I shaped it using files, holding between a couple of pieces of flat steel screwed to the side of my bench. Not the best vice, but it works for these long pieces!
After I had it square and to the basic shape, I rounded the corners:
And then carefully separated the two pieces.
This gives you an idea of how the were taped together. The spots on the left plate are some corrosion on the brass plate, not tape residue or anything. I cleaned these up after I peeled the tape up.
Then I set about making all the rivets around the outside edge of the side panels. For the spacing of these rivets, I again relied on the size of the rim of the die. It worked quite well to keep things evenly spaced.
There are two rows of inner rivets. These are supposed to be done with double the spacing of the other rivets, so I just marked the spots where I wanted to emboss a rivet for these rows.
And here are the completed Dummy Side Plates.
Next time I’ll attach those to the tank and we’ll be on to the next chapter – The Tender Manhole!
Thanks for following along,
Kim