Whats happened to the roof kit?

We are sorry about the delay in producing the last few kits for our Road Loco and Showmans. Despite what you might be thinking that we’ve lost interest in it as we’re getting close to finishing, nothing could be further from the truth.

The problems have all been generated from us trying to actually improve our productivity. It all started a couple of months ago when we decided to buy a CAM package so we could generate CNC programs on a computer rather than on the machines themselves. Longer term we were conscious that our new driven tooling lathe would be complicated if not managed through a CAM package.

These packages are quite expensive especially as we wanted ours to be integrated with our Design software namely Solidworks. For example the Mill Turn package is around £5k.

We wanted to learn to walk before running, so we purchased the software purely for our milling machines. This alone was £1k. We knew at the time that our fairly old Solidworks would need to be upgraded from our 2005 version to the current 2012. This was another £3k to do that.

Once everything was installed I started experiencing problems with opening the larger Solidworks files and this is whats causing the problem with the Road Loco and Showmans. Everytime I open the later kit files by system crashes so I haven’t been able to do any design work.

We have been in contact with the Solidworks technical support who initially told us that it was my graphics card that was causing the problem even though it was perfectly okay with the 2005 version. So we put our hands in our pockets again and bought a very expensive graphics card. Guess what; it still kept crashing. Next on the list was to increase the amount of RAM in my machine from 2GB to 4GB (the max our operating system can handle). Guess what; it still keeps crashing. Now we’re being told that we need to get a completely new computer and operating system.

In fairness to the guys at Solidworks, they were unaware of the size and complexity of our design assemblies. In fact one of their engineers commented on the Showmans design in that it was the largest assembly that he had ever seen in his seven years with Solidworks. Presumably, organizations that deal with large assemblies may well have there own IT dept rather than the way we’re structured!

Whilst we haven’t fully resolved the issues I am now able to get back to completing these designs. We’re probably going to build prototypes for both the Road Loco and Showmans roofs, just to make we get it right in terms of build quality, robustness and appearance. This will inevitably delay things still further, so we’ll probably send out some of the other remaining parts whilst this is being done. More about this a bit later.

Regards

Steve

The crashing solidworks nugget. I know it well.

Thank you very much for the update. It will put a lot of minds at ease.

Yeah, Thanks Steve, as Lynn says, appreciate update & many thanks!!
I know others may not agree, but I for one would rather you take your time to get it right!
On another subject, how are the Stanley Steam cars coming along............Any chance of some pics from Craig?
Regards,
Tony

Hi Tony

If I was to take some photos of the Stanleys now it would look like they've actually gone backwards in terms of the build, as I've taken off alot of the brass work. I haven't done much to them over the last couple of months because of all the shows etc. I've started back on them now but its small finishing items going on. That means it takes a long time for only a small visual gain. I'm working on the iron work for the 'soft top' at the moment along with a few other items. When I get bored with one activity I swop over to another thing. I'll ask Craig to post some photos when I think they look a bit different to the previous ones.

By the way a 20hp Stanley engine develops about 1800 ft lbs of torque at 1 rpm. A Bugatti Veron only produces 900 ft lbs at 3,500 rpm or so I'm told!

Regards

Steve

Hi Steve,
As the others have said - thanks for the up-date on the roof kit. Just wondering when the fly wheel kit will be available - I am away for another few months but my build is still ongoing and my builder is waiting patiently, however I get the feeling he is looking forward to finishing it as much as myself! Any news on a delivery date will set some minds at rest.
Graeme.

Hi STW

Since there is a delay on the next kits for the RL/SRL. Is there any kit available for the Traction wagon? I guess payment for the Vulcanization could be a possibility. Unless you are able to release 2 kits for the SRL when you get Solidworks going correctly again.

Graeme81 wrote:Hi Steve,
As the others have said - thanks for the up-date on the roof kit. Just wondering when the fly wheel kit will be available - I am away for another few months but my build is still ongoing and my builder is waiting patiently, however I get the feeling he is looking forward to finishing it as much as myself! Any news on a delivery date will set some minds at rest.
Graeme.

any up-date on this then?

Graeme81 wrote:

Graeme81 wrote:Hi Steve,
As the others have said - thanks for the up-date on the roof kit. Just wondering when the fly wheel kit will be available - I am away for another few months but my build is still ongoing and my builder is waiting patiently, however I get the feeling he is looking forward to finishing it as much as myself! Any news on a delivery date will set some minds at rest.
Graeme.

any up-date on this then?

got word from Isabel today that a flywheel is ready - thanks for the up-dates!

Hi STW,

I got the letter today re kit 30. Can we have the firing irons and chimney extension in 30A please ?

Cheers

Rick