Rob & Tash Showmans

Here we are at the very start of the project (well have had kits 1 and 2 delivered) and am quite a long way behind the rest of you. Neither my daughter or I have undertaken anything like this before and this will be the first for me in working in metal. So far only the wheels have been put together.


Front Wheel in fabrication. by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Dry fabrication of front wheels by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Hi Rob + Daughter

Welcome to the world of STW. Hopefully you will find the forum friendly and rich in banter. Do not worry that you are behind in the build. You are actually just where you want to be. That is building one of these wonderful engines.

One thing to remember. If in doubt ASK. No question is silly if you do not know the answer. No one will think of you less on here.

Thanks Lynn.

I'm sure as we progress through there will be loads of questions. Have already picked up lots to hints and tips from the forum, and its great to be able to share experiences and hear first hand from others who are either building or have already built and operate their own engines.
It will be great to see every ones engines completed.

Thanks for all your and other members of the forum for hints, tips and solutions to problems, for those like me they really are invaluable and it was reading this form last November that finally convinced me to build one myself rather than buy a completed engine.
Keep up the good work.

Rob & Tash

Well done Rob, you finally made a start isn't it a great feeling. I only got my boiler this month but it is a brilliant feeling just to get the front end attached. Good to see family involved too, especially girls (sorry Lynn), my daughter is involved too and my nephew, they are also NTET Steam Apprentice Club meembers.

I look forward to seeing more progress photos from you.

I used to be an engineer by trade and have been model engineering in the past too. There is still lots to learn from fellow forum members and it can be a laugh too - just get Brian M and Dwane on line

Looks like you will eventually have something to pull the log trailer behind! I notice you were the one boughght it one-bay late last year if I remember correctly. Could you post some detail photos of it on another thread?

Brian

Yes I'll post some shots of it soon for all to see it in a bit more detail. A friend of mine borrowed it for another friend to use, although at the moment they have only used it behind his engine and not for demontrations.

NTET. Must look in to that could be worth joining.

As I'm building a showmans it's not quite the right thing to pull behind it but it's certainly different which it why I bid on it.

Not been much progress for us over the last few weeks, as we have been having a hard time getting a decent paint finish, but over the last 48hrs it’s all come together nicely. Had to wait also for the high temp red paint for the name rings which seemed to take ages to arrive and on the 3rd attempt again got a finish we are happy with and I think got the spray gun etc working the way it should be so fingers crossed going forward.

Off to GDSF tomorrow to get a match for the main blue on ex-mayor, and double check the others against the RAL chart. Can’t wait now for the next kits to arrive.


Burrell Showmans Smoke Box by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Next job is to get the perch bracket painted in the "blue" once matched and attached it to the smoke box, then I can fix the chimney and check its vertical.

Looking good.

Banished out the house already?

Not quite Lynn, but yes I do take it to the worshop to work on it, and bring it back in to store it at the moment.

Its been rightly pointed out we have not done any updates for a while and we have been neglecting our duty we have not posted progress since September which is pretty poor on our part, and the website is much the same.

Things have been slow with our build and getting the ex-mayor paint colour held us up through the summer, and now the weather is to cold to spray which I was doing outside on hot days. I had not done any “proper” spraying before, (only from the aerosol spray tins which has always been successful) and it was disaster. The yellow came out ok but the blue came out very orange peal looking. I think this may have been a problem with moisture in the lines so now have an inline filter which I hope will cure the problem. I’m looking at getting something I can use as a spray booth to we can progress through the winter as the workshop is beginning to fill up now the garden furniture and bikes are packed away .

The browser tank it at a local welder (and has been for a while) getting the nuts welded, popped in Friday but the chap had not had a chance to do it, when this is back it will be painted and the front end will have the final coats done before lining out (which I hope to start before Christmas).

More pictures will follow, but we are now only on Kit 4, with 5 due shortly. Once assembled the wheels will get their final top coat together to make sure they are all exactly the same shade.

Who me?

Should have sent your tank and nuts up here and I would have stuck them together

Orange peal can also be caused by the paint starting to dry on the way to the surface.

Sounds painful !!

Hadn't considered the paint drying to fast as I didn't think it was hot enough, if it was that how would one stop it happening

It can go two ways.
Too far from the item
or not enough air volume to propell the paint forward.

With a touch up airgun I hold about 4 to 6 inch off the work piece, low pressure high volume settings on the gun and compressor. Also I have the needle quite far out to keep a average flow rate.

Not a problem when using a catalyst paint mix instead of spirit evaporation.

Thanks Lynn, thats interesting. Thinking about it the way I was set up I was closer to the wheels when spraying the yellow than I was with the blue of the front end. That may also have been a factor, will have to watch both going forward.

Guess who left the masking tape on the wheels to long!! Could peal it easily last week but tonight it's taken me two hours to remove it all in small pieces.

Oops!

Oops indeed.

This morning I got all the kits together in one place as that are normal stored in various location around the house to get a few progress shots. Not till you start putting them together as one do you realise that progress is actually being made. The first is an ond one I thought I had posted.


Front end by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Progress photo’s below…..Next time i'll get Tash to hold it again and put the wheels on....


Front End by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Front End by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Smoke Box by Robert R&N, on Flickr


IMG_2889 by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Front Weel by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Front Weel by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Front End by Robert R&N, on Flickr


Rear Wheel by Robert R&N, on Flickr

Looks good! You will soon find yourself getting things together again to look at for inspiration.

Have you got the rear wheels yet?

Looking very yellow. Is the "mello yellow" engine??

Looking good.

bjwlancashire wrote:Looks good! You will soon find yourself getting things together again to look at for inspiration.

Have you got the rear wheels yet?

I must admit its given me a bit if a lift. The first rear wheel seems to have taken an age. We have one of the rear wheels, the other is due anytime now. Hope to get both built and painted before Christmas, then Plan to line the wheels over the break.

lynnr wrote:Looking very yellow. Is the "mello yellow" engine??

Looking good.

I think the wheels will certainly make an impact, the lining on ex-mayor wheels will be a challenge to duplicate but I have got to get it to look good to really set them off. I like a challenge

At the moment I am in two minds on whether to match the bowser wheels to the engine, or leave the black with some more basic lining. Need to do a bit of drawing work to see what works best. The tank will be lined to match the engine though, but probably without the gold leaf.

Hi Rob.

My rear wheels took about 30 hours each to clean, dry assemble, take apart, final assemble, paint and line out. Front wheels took an extra 5 hours to remove the masking tape of the rubber, as I had carefully masked them off when I got the kit and it was on for 3 weeks when the final painting was done. What a job that was.

A time sheet was one of the things I forgot to start.

Keeping a record of hours spent was an idea I picked up at the open day, I was speaking to a chap who didn't know how many hours he had spent on the build. From that I decided to keep a record, the first rear wheel has taken me 22hrs, now just needs top coat and lining so we will probably be about the same as you when finished.

I think the problem I was having spraying has been resolved, having had even bigger problems today and with your tips I realised the air volume was to low, so fingers crossed for the rest of the Build.

Robfishman wrote:Keeping a record of hours spent was an idea I picked up at the open day, I was speaking to a chap who didn't know how many hours he had spent on the build. From that I decided to keep a record, the first rear wheel has taken me 22hrs, now just needs top coat and lining so we will probably be about the same as you when finished.

I think the problem I was having spraying has been resolved, having had even bigger problems today and with your tips I realised the air volume was to low, so fingers crossed for the rest of the Build.

I kept a time log when I built a kit car years ago and the total number of hours spent frightened me so this time I keep a diary of what I have done and problems overcome etc but definitely no time record.

Regards

Tom

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