Hand Tools

I am plucking up the courage (and finance) to embark on my first ever encounter with a model traction engine which will probably be the STW 2" Burrell as it's all I have the space for. Could anybody tell me what "hand tools" are needed please....I have a reasonable selection but noticed in another post a set of thread taps mentioned. What area will these be required in(I know what they do !) Also a mini drill with flexible shaft?
Thanks , Peter

Hi Peter ,

The taps I have used are to clean out the paint from the pretapped holes so have not needed to actually tap holes as yet and I only have 7 kits left to complete my 4" road loco. So if you manage to keep them clean whilst painting you could avoid having to do this.

The flexible drive on the mini drill was used with a sanding band to shape the filler on the wheel rivet nuts to help make them look more like a rivet head than a hex nut. The flex drive is not a must have but I had one so used it, the mini drill would have managed or doing it by hand with sand paper would work, just take a bit longer.

An angle grinder and electric drill have been the other main power tools I have used. The angle grinder has been a real time saver when cleaning up the wheel spokes and prepping parts for painting. I have used a variety of discs in it. Cutting one but mainly a flap disc and a scotchbright disc this was really good at removing laser scale from the wheel spokes.

Hand tools are really all I have needed so far with my build

I hope this helps

Ian

Many thanks for that Ian....I was panicking over nothing !  Peter

Only other major item for the toolkit is first aid kit for the enevatable cuts.