I am seriously considering how long I want to carry on with Orion Models – I will at least continue with all the currently ordered locos – 31 locos of 9 different types.
I am now 81 and many of my suppliers have now disappeared. My etcher went bankrupt, my materials supplier has stopped trading (owing me a considerable amount for unpaid etches), my good brass caster has decided my parts are too small, my cylinder supplier is scaling back dramatically – so I will have to do a lot more myself.
I have got a new etcher but I have lost access to all the expensive tooling (etch masks) the previous etcher had – fortunately most of that is now redundant anyway as I am no longer making those models.
My own design lathe attachment for my CNC mill should be ready later this year which should be a big improvement over my old CNC lathe in both accuracy and speed of production.
LinuxCNC went through some changes which initially caused me some problems but I have now got over that.
I still have to spend a fair amount of time getting used to FreeCAD to replace SolidWorks which should help. SolidWorks was always too buggy for my liking.
My health problems seem to have been fixed – eyes, hernia & aorta. I am now getting a regular annual CT scan to check the aorta is OK so that should pick up any other problems hopefully.
There have been various other problems with house and garden maintenance that have been wasting my time and disrupting loco production.
I will try using Google AI Mode to write the last remaining code I need for my R/C system – storing a whistle file in LittleFS and playing it back through the MAX98357A amplifier
I have reviewed and reorganised my loco production work so I should finally be finishing the batch of LMS 3Fs. After that everything needs new etches and sometimes castings.
Subsequent locos will be produced in popularity order as I need to generate some cash to pay for the etches. So the order will be (all 1/32 scale) Q1, SECR H class, T3, T9, M7, O415, 14XX, GWR AEC railcar, Bulldog, Dukedog etc.
As each loco type goes into production I will announce it here so that will be a last opportunity for customers to add themselves to the batch if they have not already ordered. Those who have already ordered will be notified by email and the exact specification required can be confirmed at that stage.
I am also trying out voice input on Linux which hopefully will remove the irritation of my two keyboards randomly typing 2 characters at a time (usually the one I want and one to the right of it – not always, “the” most often comes out as “thre” – seems I need to hit the keys a lot lighter!)
Lost count of the number of spelling corrections I needed to make in this short post.
I want to make sure that all the information on locos and all my production files are still available after I die – it would seem an awful waste if all that work is just lost.
Ideally I would like to just do all the design work and leave the production side to someone else – or maybe some sort of cooperative could take that over.
I really need to find a new materials supplier, but the castings are a bit problematic (I have had good and bad experiences with those). Some can be 3D printed in stainless steel (chimneys & smokebox doors), some can be FDM printed (domes), some resin printed (sand boxes), but really fiddly bits such as complex pipework around whistles are probably still best lost-wax cast in brass.
3D printing stainless steel wheels not only has the advantage of correct section spokes, it also enables balance weights of various sizes to be built in, but I still have to get the wobble broach working for the square axle holes.
Coupling and connecting rods will also be 3DP stainless steel.
My new CNC lathe attachment should solve a lot of turning problems and my CNC mill has never been a problem. It was originally bought for making brass masters for castings, but that has now been usurped by the 3D resin printer.
BA nuts & bolts are still available from EKP, but advice on other material suppliers would be appreciated.
I have now decided that I’m getting too old for traipsing around the country to various exhibitions. I’m sure there must be many other older members who find themselves in a similar situation. It would be nice if we still had the virtual exhibition that we used to have on the G1MRA website during the COVID period. If G1MRA have decided they no longer want to do this I am quite prepared to host something similar on my website. My difficulty is getting hold of all the information to make this a success. Suggestions please.