Engineering in Miniature

Welcome to the May edition of EIM which if your editor’s maths are correct (by no means a given), is the 539th issue and sadly the last. As announced on this page last month the publishers have decided to close the magazine in the face of rising costs and falling demand, particularly in regards to advertising. Many readers have got in touch to offer such kind comments on the magazine and their regrets on its departure – your words were much appreciated. I must also apologise to readers who received subscription renewal letters at the same time as I was breaking the closure news – this has now been rectified and the publishers tell me that all subscribers will be contacted in due course with regard to their subscriptions. Of…

Many years ago (at least 40), I purchased a kit of materials from Neil Hemingway to make a small ungeared rotary table. This was designed by George Thomas (GHT), and the building of it was published in Model Engineer magazine during 1976-77. The table is 3¾-inch in diameter, and has mounting holes suitable for Myford 7 tee-slots. The design was also included his book Model Engineer’s Workshop Manual. The kit was made up according to the instructions, and the table has since proved to be very useful in my workshop, particularly as it is ungeared and has stops to limit the table rotation. To make it quicker to set up, I’ve mounted it on a steel plate and added a tenon, so that it can be clamped in the milling…

This month’s report from the depths of the workshop of the Fairbourne Miniature Railway continues with the build of the prototype air pump I have designed over the last year and started describing the build of last month. The first assembly of the steam chest showed up a couple of minor issues – the valve rod wasn’t quite long enough to provide full support to the locking nuts on the bottom of the rod and there wasn’t enough clearance to turn the nuts easily. This was a relatively quick fix by machining the valve top down a little further and thinning the valve rod support by 1mm either side (Photo 1-3). With the steam chest initial fit-up working nicely I then fitted the air piston to the piston rod and…

While Engineering in Miniature is closing with this issue one model engineering staple forever associated with the magazine is continuing to flourish – the Midlands Model Engineering Exhibition. EIM founder Chris Deith launched the magazine in 1979, a year after staging the first Midlands show and in close to half a century since the show has continued to highlight the best examples of models right across the hobby – other shows have come and gone, not least the ‘elder statesman’ of the Model Engineer Exhibition, but the Midlands show has outlasted them all and now takes a deserved role as the premier event on the model engineering calendar. Competitive attraction This year’s show will take place on 17th to 20th October, and while that may seem to be a long…

Part Three of three The lid and seat is made up of three parts. Some 6mm ply was cut to produce three pieces, one of which fits on top of the frame of the box. This is the main lid. The other two pieces are cut to fit inside the top frame. One is sized so it just fits through, the third is the same shape but 8mm smaller in width and 8mm shorter in length. This will be upholstered to become the seat. Photo 44 shows the three pieces. I decided to waist the main lid a little to narrow the middle section down slightly, making it slightly narrower when fitted to the chassis for raised tracks. I left each end the correct width for about 100mm at each…

The various parts that the making of was described last month were then painted with some suitably weatherproof paint (Photo 16-17), before being placed in-situ, in the trailer (Photo 18). Note that the steel strengthening plate for the trailer’s front upright has also been mounted in place by this stage and part of it can be seen (painted) on the left of this photo. The buffer-sockets board is used to mark the holes to be drilled through the trailer-plate, to accommodate the main retaining bolts. Doing this in situ, with the loco buffers inserted into their final positions, ensures that the whole arrangement is guaranteed to fit (until or unless you decide to re-adjust your loco’s suspension…). The M12 retaining bolts can then be added (Photo 19) and the whole…