Glaskasten

Repair of the radius link brackets

April 2, 2010

Judging by the dates I noted on previous pages I haven't looked at this model for four years. How time flies. Well, I wasn't able to work on my Garratt and neither on my 6200, both waiting for parts, so I spent some time on this model. First: why do I keep working on it. After all, there are far better ready-to-run models available for a reasonable price. Well, for several reasons none of which really weighs but 1) I have bought two kits, investing €50 2) I'm not the kind of "just throw it away" type 3) for practise sake, 4) I have nothing else to do unless I start another kit. So I keep dogging on, in the lowest priority mode.
	I did some minor assembly work. My first goal was to achieve a running model. I soldered the electric wiring and let the motor run in.
	I found that the bottom cover easily short circuits on the soldering points were the electric wiring is connected to the phosphor bronze wiper.
	.So I clad the inside of the wiring cavity in the bottom cover with adhesive tape
	When working on the return crank I snipped the pin to fit it in the wheels too short. I drilled a hole and inserted a 0,7 mm nickel silver wire. Done!
	After the some fiddling the chassis ran satisfyingly. The Rai-Mo models are notorious bad runners, especcially compared to modern day models. Considering there is a gap of 25 year of development between this model and the current kits I was altogether happy with the result. I do not intend to run this model at all, so I'll be just happy if it runs, end of story. Note that I soldered a nut on the brass band that keeps the motor in its place. This is a more comfortable en reliable construction then in the original kit.
	Having worked only an hour or so on this chassis, the first radius link bracket broke. When it did I confidently looked for a spare in the second kit I bought solely for that purpose. To my horror I found none. While I was still musing over a way to replace this bracket, I even tries to make a spare from styrene, the other one broke as well. At the first one I thought I was just clumsy. But then again, the second one just seemed to need very little encouragement to fall apart. While measure the bits and peices left over I also seem to have lost the remains so I had no clue to go for.
	I soldered two small sheets of 0,5 mm brass sheet on each other and drew the contours using what few measures I remembered and guesstimating the rest. I sawes and filed these tiny devils to shape. WHY ON EARTH AM I DOING THIS FOR. WHY DON'T I JUST GIVE UP AND TRASH THE KIT?
	But after some depressed musing I produced these two shiny bits. I files a slot where the bends had to go.

	And tada!! I hope the sizes are anywhere near correctness.

To be continued