Chassis-bashing

As it's a long weekend and the Domestic Authorities hightailed it out of town for the day, I spent an unusually uninterrupted few hours in the workshop & managed to get the chassis aligned & on its wheels.

This involved:

• Seperate the 2 frames & tack the axle bearings into place
• Install frame spacers using temporary screws
• Solder one side of both frame spacers to chassis frame. This leaves one frame able to be adjusted for best fit.
  
• Put axles through both frames & fit wheels temporarily
• Adjust loose frame until axles turn freely, then tighten spacer screws
• Place chassis on glass & test for any diagonal rocking between wheel pairs
• Use soldering iron to adjust bearings until all 4 driving wheels are resting on the glass
• Test that both pairs of driving wheels still rotate freely
• Solder loose frame to spacers. Chassis is now rigid
• Test again on glass
• Fit siderods & adjust until wheels run freely. This involved opening the siderod holes slightly larger than the 1.4mm crankpins required, but wasn't too much of a problem.
  

After all that, this is what the chassis looks like:



The top view showing top-hat style axle bearings in place:




And a trial setup with the bogie wheels I intend to use, showing why I had to open up the originally scale wheel-arches.



Next major tasks are the bogie frame & its pivot along with the motor/idler gearbox.