Morning all. One more day til Monday! Spent some quality time at the workbench yesterday. Remember that Santa Fe 2-10-2? Well someone wants it, so its sold. That precipitated another project. I have another one in the box, but it's all in pieces. Since I received this one in pieces I have no references for how it came apart. All of the major components were in a one gallon freezer bag, the drivers and running gear in a sandwich bag (all still together), and the hardware in a snack bag. Kind of like this 2-10-4 in similar condition:
Which comes out of the box like this:
These projects are much easier if you have an identical assembled model on hand. The list of things to do goes kind of like this:
1: Lay everything out. 2: look for broken items that need fixing and failed solder joints. They're will be some! 3: Disassemble the running gear and drivers, and remove the brake shoes from the frame. I have compartmented boxes to keep right and left rods separated, and other parts like driveline parts, tender parts and such together. 4: Dive into the bag of loose hardware. Maybe a dozen types of tiny metric screws and you have to figure out what goes where. This is where having an assembled model comes in really handy. If you're experienced enough (and I am) you can figure it all out, but having a complete one to refer to saves a bunch of time! I typically install the screws in whatever part they're for. Frame screws into the frame, tender truck screws into the tender floor, you get the idea. This little bit of fun will probably take you an hour or two.
For me, the next step is into the blasting booth to remove tarnish, corrosion, and the like. You may also find a few loose parts at this step. I tape off the driver axles and cover the bearings and brush off blast the drivers, lead & trailing truck wheels and the tender wheels so they'll take paint better, but this is an optional step. For those of us that don't have a blasting booth, paint stripper and a tooth brush work well enough. I did them this way for a number of years with good results. Side note: blasting booths are cheap. A good one will cost you less than the cost of a locomotive. Compressors with enough guts to run one correctly aren't cheap. A two stage one is recommended. If you are considering one of these setups, you'll probably spend around a grand if you do it right. Ouch, right? Next step (for me) after blasting is the ultrasonic cleaner for 7-10 minutes, then a trip to the sink to rinse off the cleaning solution. You can skip the ultrasonic cleaner and go straight to the sink with some soapy water and a toothbrush. Rinse everything off, and then I blow it dry with compressed air and let it sit for a day to let any water hiding in corners & crevices to evaporate. At this point you're here:
I'll paint it today. I always try and paint within 24 hours of cleaning so oxidation doesn't have a chance to get started again. You'll notice the previous owner had cut out the tender floor for a speaker (from the PFM sound system days). Not sure what I'll do here. To sound or not.
Which comes out of the box like this:
These projects are much easier if you have an identical assembled model on hand. The list of things to do goes kind of like this:
1: Lay everything out. 2: look for broken items that need fixing and failed solder joints. They're will be some! 3: Disassemble the running gear and drivers, and remove the brake shoes from the frame. I have compartmented boxes to keep right and left rods separated, and other parts like driveline parts, tender parts and such together. 4: Dive into the bag of loose hardware. Maybe a dozen types of tiny metric screws and you have to figure out what goes where. This is where having an assembled model comes in really handy. If you're experienced enough (and I am) you can figure it all out, but having a complete one to refer to saves a bunch of time! I typically install the screws in whatever part they're for. Frame screws into the frame, tender truck screws into the tender floor, you get the idea. This little bit of fun will probably take you an hour or two.
For me, the next step is into the blasting booth to remove tarnish, corrosion, and the like. You may also find a few loose parts at this step. I tape off the driver axles and cover the bearings and brush off blast the drivers, lead & trailing truck wheels and the tender wheels so they'll take paint better, but this is an optional step. For those of us that don't have a blasting booth, paint stripper and a tooth brush work well enough. I did them this way for a number of years with good results. Side note: blasting booths are cheap. A good one will cost you less than the cost of a locomotive. Compressors with enough guts to run one correctly aren't cheap. A two stage one is recommended. If you are considering one of these setups, you'll probably spend around a grand if you do it right. Ouch, right? Next step (for me) after blasting is the ultrasonic cleaner for 7-10 minutes, then a trip to the sink to rinse off the cleaning solution. You can skip the ultrasonic cleaner and go straight to the sink with some soapy water and a toothbrush. Rinse everything off, and then I blow it dry with compressed air and let it sit for a day to let any water hiding in corners & crevices to evaporate. At this point you're here:
I'll paint it today. I always try and paint within 24 hours of cleaning so oxidation doesn't have a chance to get started again. You'll notice the previous owner had cut out the tender floor for a speaker (from the PFM sound system days). Not sure what I'll do here. To sound or not.
