Table of contents for February 2026 in Model Engineer & Workshop

May I wish every reader all the best for the New Year. I hope the coming year brings you peace, health and prosperity, as well as much enjoyable and productive time in your workshop. I see some positive signs for the hobby – one green shoot is that the number of enquiries I receive from beginners seems to be rising. Hope-fully many of them will find their way to the forum or their local model engineering society, and benefit from the experience, wisdom and encouragement that their members can offer. Another positive sign is that a new show will be launched this year in the South West. Alongside MMEX, LowMex and the St Albans exhibition, let’s hope they all continue to succeed and attract and inspire new model engineers. One…

There were thirty-five Club and Society stands at this year’s exhibition and what a show of UK model engineering skill it was. There were excellent stand presentations combined with top-quality model engineering on show. I hope my notes will give you a flavour and persuade your club to enter next year. Let’s begin with the winners of the Best Club Display for the Society Shield Trophy. Judged by the stand holders, Meridienne have no input to this competition, but Bridget Deith, wife of exhibition founder, the late Chris Deith, presents the awards. The winner was the Harlington Locomotive Society. Their display, photo 1, consisted of a sectioned locomotive repair workshop with a range of locomotives and activities on display. Outside the shed a storage road had superb 5” gauge steam…

The Rob Roy water system is undoubtedly simple, provided your arms are long enough to reach forward to the bypass valve. On ‘1372’, with water feed check valves (clacks) on the backhead, it’s inevitably more complicated. To make the bending as easy as possible I’ve made all the pipes in 1/8” diameter copper. They have the usual nut and nipple end fittings, and my bending was all done using my simple grooved bar tools mentioned previously. The fittings are ‘more of the same’ in terms of manufacturing. Figure 75 shows the schematic diagram and a view showing the pipes and fittings on the rear of the left hand tank. The pipe from crosshead pump to boiler and bypass valve runs under the running board and around the frame in front…

STORAGE FOR LARGER DRILL BITS Our tip winner this month is William Waddilove who offers advice for storing big drills: One of my problems in the workshop was how to store large drills so they are readily available and easy to find. In the photo you will see the 'standard' large sets of drills in their boxes; Imperial and Metric sizes. Next to it is the big drill storage rack. This is a rectangular metal oil can with the top cut off and in it are lengths of plastic waste pipe. They are held in place by building foam. This gives a sturdy rack, and each individual drill can be easily located. I have also written the drill size on the end with a pen. Above it is a long…

The letters page of MEW 4770 concerns my visit to Elvington. My apologies for the confusion I may have caused the by reference to the radio ‘shack’’ at The Yorkshire Air Museum. In photo 1 I did not refer specifically to the HRO in my use of the word ‘neglected’, but to the odd device in photo 3, the Chance light. Thanks to my correspondents for this. As a licenced radio amateur for over 50 years I am well aware of the enthusiasm for HRO receivers. I used a similar receiver, the AR88 for many years. In this issue, don’t look, Ethel! Putting the cart before the horse: Oh, Grandpapa, what big feet you have! Contemporary, use? Visibility, Deodand and a Deltic. One for the road vehicle enthusiasts, a tandem…

LittleLEC 2026 Announced This year LittleLEC will be held on Saturday 20 to Sunday 21 June 2026 at South Cheshire Model Engineering Society. LittleLEC is an annual locomotive efficiency competition for drivers of small locomotives weighing less than 50lb dry. These are much more challenging to drive than larger ones, and so this competition was devised by Peter Langridge in the 'noughties', enabling owners of small locomotives to take part in an IMLEC style efficiency competition. Full details can be found on the LittleLEC website, http://www.littlelec.co.uk/home/ South Cheshire MES last hosted LittleLEC in 2016 and we are looking forward to hosting it again in 2026. Our track is located behind The Peacock public house at 221 Crewe Road, Willaston, near Nantwich. CW5 6NE. Access to the site is at the…

One of the main problems when using machine taps is to hold them securely at the square end. It’s possible to hold them on the cylindrical shank (with a good quality drill chuck) if the shank diameter is equal to or larger than the nominal thread (e.g. 6mm for a M6 tap). But often, second-hand long reach taps are made with a smaller shank, making it difficult to get adequate grip. I propose two solutions for holding them in a drill chuck: Grinding three flats with a tool and cutter grinder (see fig. 1 and photo 1) so a positive drive is possible with a drill chuck but still also from the square end if required. Attaching a hex sleeve (also photo 1) held with epoxy or Loctite retainer, a…

Pultra “17” series lathes are fitted for 10mm collets in both the head and tailstock. Over the years I have managed to collect a set of collets in both metric at 1mm intervals and imperial in 64ths for my 1750 lathe, photo 1. 10mm collets are so named because of the diameter of the shank and can hold material through the collet up to about 6.5 mm or 1/4”. The larger collets in my collection are, I believe, called button chucks and while they might be useful for making ball handles for a Quorn, I have not yet found a use for them, but they are there, ready and waiting, should the need arise. Whilst the Pultra lathe is a pleasure to use, it is very simple (a plain lathe)…

Once in a while, not often but every now and then, the stars and planets align, and an opportunity presents itself which simply cannot be ignored. As some readers may recall, two model engineering organizations hold my allegiance, one in the old world and one in the new, and it so happened that, at the beginning of June of this year, on back-to-back weekends, each was to celebrate an important event in its history, and, for the first time ever, I found myself able to arrange my schedule to be on the right continent at the right time to attend both. PASTURES REVISITED Now, despite the two nation’s historical differences, in my experience and contention, having a broad viewpoint and a foot in both camps, so to speak, I strongly…

LEAD ACID Lead acid secondary cells are heavy and contain corrosive sulphuric acid, but in balance they have high capacity and can deliver high current for sustained periods of time. The nominal voltage per cell is 2v and we usually encounter 12V six-cell batteries. Gel batteries are a variant construction that has the acid in the form of a gel rather than a liquid. This eliminates the risk of spilling acid associated with ordinary lead acid batteries. A freshly charged 12V lead acid battery will have an actual voltage of 14.4v to 14.6v, equipment designed to use such battery will be tolerant of this overvoltage. Different designs of lead acid batteries balance the ability to deliver high currents against being able to cope with greater levels of discharge. Car starter…

Figure 91 is the development of the smokebox that belongs with part 23. This part looks at the superheaters and their connections, I will revisit the superheaters themselves in more detail later. I had decided that all my engines should have a double row of superheaters, having seen the tube plate which had been removed from 80078 at Llangollen during its overhaul from Barry condition. I looked at this tube plate and thought that we didn’t use half enough superheat in our 5” gauge engines so I set out to address this problem. I therefore set to and decided to re-configure my 4MT boiler drawing to accommodate a double row of superheater flues and built my boiler to suit. I was convinced that this must be the way to go.…