Fitting Cab edging e.g. ½ round brass

[Dennis RaynerParticipant @dennisrayner52782]

[Dennis RaynerParticipant @dennisrayner52782]

I'm about to fit the edging to the cab of my 7¼ gauge Hunslet. The right size would seem to be about 3/16". If I use ½ round brass, how do I "balance" it on the 1/16" thick cab sides to solder it? Alternatively, I've taken a lot of photos of models of these locos and it seems that many people have used copper or brass tube split along it's length and slid over the cab sides. This seems a lot more appealing but how do I straighten a coil of tube and how do I hold it to use my vertical mill with a slitting saw to open it up?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Rolling tube between two flat boards gets rid of bends and kinks.

Soft solder the tube to the edge of some flat stock and then it can be machined, a few tacks will do

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Hi Dennis,

Jason's soldering method will work fine of course, but another method would be to make a fixture block to hold in the mill vise to align stock and saw. The block will need a through clearance hole for the tube to pass horizontally, and a slot for the slitting saw to pass through to the stock. Once set up, tube can be fed through the block past the saw as required. No solder / unsolder / solder cleanup on the tube with this method, but it needs some time invested to make the block.

Good luck, JD

[Dennis RaynerParticipant @dennisrayner52782]

Thanks very much to both of you – massively helpful replies. I've already done a 9" length for the bunker using Jason's method whch has worked very well. I've now got to do 2 x 17" lengths for the cab itself and I may well try Jeff's method for these.

Thanks again.

Dennis

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