Sep 15, 2017

Needing a bit of a break from re-drawing the Firebox for the Princess my thoughts turned to front lamp irons. As I was working out what was needed I got side tracked by working out how I might machine some of the double lamp irons that the GWR fitted to the 8F’s that they built

Not the best photo as it’s a snip from a much larger photo found on the net to illustrate what I am talking about. The MOK kit does provide etches to make up this version of the lamp irons but I am not keen on etched lamp irons. I also thought that I would like to do them from nickel as the rest of the kit is nickel but I didn’t have any nickel bar thick enough. I do have some 5mm rod so my first step was to machine the end square in the mill.

Then it was a case of working out how best to mill out the bits in between the lamp irons.

I milled a groove down one corner of the square section and then rotated the part to carefully mill from the opposite corner to leave the two upright irons

the tops were then rounded with a file before cutting off the main piece. I could have transferred the work piece to the lathe and part it off but I just cut it with a piercing saw them popped it in the vice jaws and milled the bottom flat.