In between the multiple redraws of the Princess Firebox I maintained my sanity by doing a little more lathe work.

In the to do pile I have three GNR Tenders and having had a peek in the boxes all the castings are whitemetal. To be fair Two of the Tenders are Gladiator and the castings are nice castings the third tender is an ACE Products tender and the castings are not quite so fine. In any event I much prefer turned ones as they look much more crisp in my eyes. That and I enjoy making them.

This was my first attempt but I got the angle of the top wrong so I had another go.

I did manage to salvage one of the first attempt and re-turn it to the correct 45 degree angle The second one I managed to gouge with the tool bit so that awaits being sued for something in my potentially useful bits box.

The two without rims are for self trimming tenders where they have a slightly curved rim which fit over the top edge of the coal space. Having checked my tenders I need to make another pair without rims as two of my tenders are the same self trimming type. Albeit one is from Gladiator and the other ACE

Under the kind tutelage of fellow Gauge O Guild member, Ian Middleditch I have been playing with turning whistles.

First, I made a form tool from a length of 3/16 silver steel rod ( based it on a photo that Ian kindly sent me of some that he had made.

Once filed to shape the cutting end was hardened and tempered using my microflame (the last time I hardened and tempered anything was when I was at school).

Next I drilled out the centre to take a 0.8mm rod and then roughed out the larger top part of the whistle.

Then I used the form tool to create the final shape. It did create the final shape but I think that it would do even better on a slightly narrower piece of rod this one was 2.4mm and I think that a 2mm rod would create a better shape with this particular tool. In the event I touched it with the diamond file to finish it off.

I then parted it off and I took Ian’s advice and put a length of 0.8mm rod in the tail chuck and through the hole in the part so that it didn’t disappear into the mists when parted off.

Repeat the exercise for the bottom part and solder together on a length of rod with a 0.5mm spacer in between to create the whistle (I used a small piece of 20thou styrene with a hole and slot made in it to slip over the centre rod).

The nuts were added after the whistle was made up and are from microbore tube filed in a pin vice to a hexagon shape.