Suydam 2 Stall Engine House

[Bernd]

I started this project last Nov. 2020. Anybody ever post on having to solder a building together?

This is the project.







These are all the parts to make up the engine house. The majority of them need to be soldered together.



The first thing the instructions call for is to solder angle pieces to the corners of the long section. Since this was an open kit and purchased at a train show, some of the angle pieces were missing. So, I made some up of .010" (.250mm) thick brass.



Of course, as Murphy would have it, none of the corners were square. I did an experiment on the best way to cut thin stock like this brass. I'll show that next.

I have a pair of these scissors. I think they have a medical term for them. I scribed a line and cut the brass.



Note how the piece has a twist and curl in it? Hard to straighten out properly.

Next up was a pair of small tin snips.



No twist, but it curled. Still tuff to straighten this out properly for the next process of bending an angle.

Next, I tried a regular pair of Fiskars scissors.



Same result as the first pair of scissors I tried.

I figured since this is very thin brass it should be able to be scribed like styrene and snapped off. I'm using a dental pick with a very sharp pointed end to scribe the lines. One for the bend and the second is scribed almost all the way through.



First I measured in 1/8" (3.175mm) and scribed a line. Then I measure in 1/4" (6.35mm) and scribed almost all the way through.





The line that gets scribed where the brake happens leaves nice little curly cue chips.



Next the piece is placed on the edge of a sharp corner and bent down.



It is then bent back up over itself and it should break off. Sometimes it takes one or two more bends to do that. It depends on how deep you make the scribe. Just like when you do styrene sheet.



And success.



Next the piece gets bent to a 90° in a vise with sharp corner smooth jaws.



The 1/8" (3.175mm) scribed line gets lined up even with the vise jaw. Tighten the vise good and tight so the part doesn't move and using a hammer bend over the other protruding 1/8" (3.175mm) piece.

Don't hammer it over all at once. Work your way down the piece bending a little at a time.



Once bent all the way over it's time to make a nice sharp corner. Tap down till it's flat on the jaw.



A comparison with the brass piece and one that comes with the kit. Note that the piece was not bent all at once.



This is what happens when you finish bending the rest of the piece. You get a slight bend where you finished the second bending process.



You'll either need longer vise jaws or make shorter pieces. There are more ways to do a bend like this but it's beyond the scope of this thread. I know somebody is going to tell me I need to buy a brake press. Naw, I don't think so. Being a machinist for many years and home hobby machinist for the same amount of time, I'd build one.

On the next installment I'll get into soldering the angle pieces to the sides of the building and some of the mistakes I made along the way.

Until next time.

Bernd

[deemery]

Could you use sheet metal forming pliers/"hand seamer" for this?

dave

[Bernd]

Could you use sheet metal forming pliers/"hand seamer" for this?

dave

I'm sure you could. I don't have a pair so I can't tell. The thing to remember is that the longer jaw the piece is clamped in the better the bend will be. Forming pliers have a short set of jaws. I think you'd wind up with a very wavy bend like I showed in the picture.

Bernd

[ReadingBob]

Quite a project. I remember those kits from when I was in high school but I've never built one. I'll be following along!

[Philip]

I reworked that exact kit for my old railroad club. Somehow all the windows were missing. Was certainly a nice kit! Didn't you mill brass windows for that already?

Philip

[Bernd]

I reworked that exact kit for my old railroad club. Somehow all the windows were missing. Was certainly a nice kit! Didn't you mill brass windows for that already?

Philip

Hi Phil,

Yes I did. I'm posting my build here for those who weren't/aren't on the RR-L forum. Plus if the RR-L is not saved then the build will be on this forum.

Bernd

[Bernd]

Could you use sheet metal forming pliers/"hand seamer" for this?

dave

I'm sure you could. I don't have a pair so I can't tell. The thing to remember is that the longer jaw the piece is clamped in the better the bend will be. Forming pliers have a short set of jaws. I think you'd wind up with a very wavy bend like I showed in the picture.

Bernd

I did a bit of rethinking on my answer to Dave's question on using a pair of metal forming pliers.

My thought is that it is not the proper tool for modeling purposes. It's a large tool designed for heavier bending than needed for modeling use. It's like taking an 8oz. ballpeen hammer to drive "N" scale spikes. Yes it's a hammer to drive in nails but is the inappropriate tool for driving "N" scale sikes.

The vise I'm using is case hardened and has very sharp corners thus I can get a good piece of angle in brass for modeling purposes. Another method that could be used are two pieces of tool steel clamped together in a larger vise to serve the same purpose as the vise I used.

Also notice I scribed a line for my bend. That helps in making sure to get a sharp bend plus a somewhat straighter bend than if using sheet metal forming pliers. A good example of this process are the brass etches used in scale model building such as signal towers or brass details on brass equipment.

As this series progresses, I'll show the use of a homemade resistance soldering tool, tips on soldering methods and two CNC machines to produce some of the parts for this build.

I hope you find this informative and demystifying in the building of a metal kit.

Bernd

[Mr. Critter]

Quite a project. I remember those kits from when I was in high school but I've never built one. I'll be following along!

I worked in a couple of hobby shops as a teenager.  One of 'em had piles of Suydam kits, and I can't remember seeing anyone ever buy one. They were terrifying, the metal ones, at least.  That said, I'll be making popcorn for this thread.  (And I have a spanky-new resistance soldering machine and corner clamps, now.)

[deemery]

Bernd, I bet you know some home improvement contractor with an aluminum siding bending machine.  Have you thought about using one of those to get those long corner pieces?  

dave

[Bernd]

Bernd, I bet you know some home improvement contractor with an aluminum siding bending machine.  Have you thought about using one of those to get those long corner pieces? 

dave

Again, Dave a tool not designed for model work. Like I said two pieces of tool steel about a foot long would work the best. Also, much cheaper than an aluminum siding bending machine and plus smaller.

Bernd

[Bernd]

Quite a project. I remember those kits from when I was in high school but I've never built one. I'll be following along!

I worked in a couple of hobby shops as a teenager.  One of 'em had piles of Suydam kits, and I can't remember seeing anyone ever buy one. They were terrifying, the metal ones, at least.  That said, I'll be making popcorn for this thread.  (And I have a spanky-new resistance soldering machine and corner clamps, now.)

Oooo I love popcorn. Make enough for both of us. 

Bernd

[Philip]

Carry on sir. The viewer are in for a journeyman lesson on milling!

Philip

[ACL1504]

Bernd,

Very nice SBS on this. As a teenager, I attempted to build, solder the Black Bart Mine kit. What a disaster! I was successful on the power house one.

Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

Tom

[Bernd]

Carry on sir. The viewer are in for a journeyman lesson on milling!

Philip

I'm thinking of doing a couple of posts in the "Modeling Wizardry" section on tabletop machines for use in modeling. I'm more of a mechanical guy in model railroading since I spent over 30 years in the machine tool industry.

Bernd

[Bernd]

Bernd,

Very nice SBS on this. As a teenager, I attempted to build, solder the Black Bart Mine kit. What a disaster! I was successful on the power house one.

Looking forward to the rest of this thread.

Tom

More to come Tom. I've got almost 200 pictures on this build. Sometimes I think I get a little to verbose in my builds. I'm much into show details of certain procedures. You may need two or three bowls of popcorn to sit through this one. 

Bernd