Author Topic: Minnie TE (1")  (Read 4825 times)

Offline cwelkie

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #15 on: October 04, 2021, 12:31:07 AM »
Ron - thanks for sharing your experience with the VHT paint. I think that’s going to what I try first.
Charlie

Offline joe d

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #16 on: October 04, 2021, 08:58:40 PM »
Charlie:

I might be a little biased, but I think blue is just fine for a Minnie...



This is a Rustoleum product, looks nice, adheres well to steel or iron, can peel it off brass with my fingernail.

Cheers, Joe

Offline ettingtonliam

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #17 on: October 04, 2021, 10:22:03 PM »
Sorry to disagree, but very few traction engines were blue, at least in their working lives, particularly not that bright blue. Doesn't appeal to me at all. Sorry.

Offline propforward

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #18 on: October 04, 2021, 11:39:46 PM »
Charlie:

I might be a little biased, but I think blue is just fine for a Minnie...



This is a Rustoleum product, looks nice, adheres well to steel or iron, can peel it off brass with my fingernail.

Cheers, Joe


That’s a nice model - looks great. Not the colour I would choose but I think it’s excellent to just go your own way and paint it the way you want.

There are a couple of Stuart model engines on ebay right now, and I was going to bid, but I think I’d rather spend the money on a Minnie instead.
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline cwelkie

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #19 on: October 05, 2021, 03:59:47 AM »
That’s a very nice Minnie Joe! The beauty of a Minnie is that it isn’t a scale model so we can paint them (or not) as strikes our fancy.

Propforward - one thing about a Traction Engine is the variety of work that needs doing. It is also a great excuse for making  and/or adding to shop tooling. For example, I built a set of bending rolls before starting my Minnie. Sure, I could have done without them but seeing the front axle perch, those boiler reinforcement plates and cladding come to shape so evenly made it worthwhile.

Offline cwelkie

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #20 on: November 02, 2021, 10:40:22 PM »
The painting (almost) final assembly has been done.  I still hate painting. Oh well - it may be "far from good, but it's good from far".

I ended up using POR15 heat temperature paint for the "hot bits" mainly due to prior success with their other products. Followed instructions carefully and completely even down to using their cleaner/degreaser.  The first learning was to NOT use a magnet to hold up light ferrous parts in place while spraying ... not unless you want an interesting magnetic field image in the paint.  Weird.  The heat cured/baked paint isn't as durable as I was hoping for either; at least for my world.  Naturally, edges and corners are the most vulnerable.

For the blue, red and gloss black I used Duplicolor Engine Enamel (with ceramic). This paint got Duplicolor self-etching primer under it for all parts after scuffing with Scotchbrite and cleaning. On ferrous the paint adhered as well as could be expected. On non-ferrous (i.e., bronze and brass) I found the paint peeled and/or flaked down to bare metal under fasteners and when ever low-tack masking tape was used.  All this after waiting at least a week between spray and masking.  Another "challenge" is the paint's tendency to orange-peel or "stipple" with a later second coat - even after waiting the prescribed 7 days.

My final difficulty was my own fault through not paying attention to the "type" of paint I was using on the wheels.  I found a colour for the wheel rims that I liked (Dupicolor Wheel Coating) and applied it first.  Once dried (for a week), it was masked and sprayed with the blue engine enamel. What I got for my effort was a crazzed, wrinkled finish (and a few small spots of peeled first coat on the rims).  It seems the engine enamle isn't compatible with the wheel coating.

I am happy with how the colour scheme turned out so that's something positive.

In the end I decided I needed to make some progress for a change and put it all together to see if it will run ... and it does.  There are still some tweaks and adjustments including a slide valve that isn't completely sealing.  I'll run it for awhile (on air) to let things settle before I start fiddling with it.
Charlie

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/-QuTTmQv91k[/youtube1]

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/84M5Xe4yLtk[/youtube1]
« Last Edit: November 03, 2021, 12:46:51 PM by cwelkie »

Offline Don1966

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #21 on: November 02, 2021, 10:44:34 PM »
Excellent job on the Minnie Charlie and love the color scheme. ….. :Love:



Din

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #22 on: November 03, 2021, 01:22:45 AM »
Hi Charlie

Sorry about all the troubles with the paint, it sure does run and look nice though!

Dave

Offline propforward

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #23 on: November 03, 2021, 01:38:33 AM »
Charlie,

That’s a superb engine - inspirational in fact. Sorry to hear of painting difficulties, but it turned out great in the end, you must be pleased with that. I managed to pick up the Mason book for a fair price so I will be studying that - I’d love to build one of these. That project list never stops growing!
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline Kim

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2021, 03:42:39 AM »
Very nice looking Minnie, Charlie!   Love the paint scheme.  :ThumbsUp:

It turned out beautiful disspite the problems you had with it.  Painting isn't my favorite part either!  :-\

Kim

Offline Chipswitheverything

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #25 on: November 03, 2021, 09:04:26 AM »
The engine looks very handsome in the deep blue paintwork, a fine model and remarkable to have made it during less than a year!
 Re the "Minnie" book, which does seem to be for sale at a very high price, as Don remarked a few weeks ago; though the book would be an asset to a prospective builder, Len Mason published the Minnie series in Model Engineer magazine starting in January 1969 and running on into 1970. Probably easier and cheaper for UK builders to source, if not on their shelves already.   Dave

Offline cwelkie

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #26 on: November 03, 2021, 12:53:14 PM »
Thanks everyone for the kind comments. It has been a wonderful build all-in-all. It is interesting which parts of a model one gets the most satisfaction from ... on this one it was the wheels (of course) and the lubricator.  The former because they ended up true and the later just because all the tiny pieces fit and work.

Now to sort out what's next ...
Charlie

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #27 on: November 03, 2021, 09:37:21 PM »
While it was a pain in the proverbial, to apply the colours, the end result looks amazing  :praise2:
The engine runs very nicely too  :ThumbsUp:

Have you tried to put it in gear so far ?

Per

Offline Zephyrin

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #28 on: November 04, 2021, 08:57:00 AM »
you did a great job with the steam tractor, distinguished and fine colouring !
flaking paint on the edges, and under the bolts and nuts, really an annoying thing, I don't know how to solve it.
do you plan to steam it at the end ?

Offline cwelkie

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Re: Minnie TE (1")
« Reply #29 on: November 04, 2021, 02:57:38 PM »
Thanks Per and "Zephyrin".

I'm still undecided about actually steaming this engine.  It has been built and tested throughout to do so but I don't want to get in trouble with the anti-coal movement  ;) It may happen at some point but that would be a whole new learning curve.

Per - just for you  ;D; a video of all the mechanical bits working (except the winch).  Sorry about the compressor in the beginning (one gets so used to it in the shop I didn't notice it until previewing the video later) and the fumbling around with the gear selector pin. This run was at about 20 psi (1.4 bar) - about the same as my espresso machine!

Dave - your comments regarding the serialized magazine articles are well founded.  I am lucky enough to have the book and it is a valuable resource but am sure the magazine articles would follow closely.  As JasonB mentioned a long time back, one can easily build the model from the book.  If I had a "do over", I'd have only purchased the book and used the money spent on the drawings for materials.

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/SUAFNe0UTWg[/youtube1]

 

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