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Iron Pigs
Iron Pigs took a step forwards yesterday with the making of a tap to cut some rather important threads. In order for the project to procede I need to re-furbish my home CNC machine mainly by replacing the existing screwed rods with proper machine screws. The screws are no problem but to buy a 12 mm X 3 mm pitch Trapezoidal thread tap costs £100, I can buy nuts at £20 each but I need 6 however £100 is a bit of a chunk out of the pension so to test it I made my own tap. If all goes well then later in the year the tap will be bought so no pocket money for a good few months for me.
The machine is needed for making polystyrene foam chassis patterns which I would rather make in one piece than assemble from smaller components and as more than one loco is envisaged accurate repetition calls for me to use the computer. The machine has already been tried for making 25 mm wheel patterns with 6 spokes and 6 stacked on top of each other only look as one when viewed from the top of the stack, once the weather improves casting can continue outdoors since I do not think melting metal in the kitchen will be approved of by management.
John (G)
PS Perhaps due to the small size Steam Guineas might be a better name.
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