While chatting to a friend on the phone last night I said that I wasn’t going to post any more on the tender because it’s really a repeat of what’s gone before on build but then today, I had a hiccup in proceeding so I thought it worth sharing how I got out of it.

The kit provides two of these Windlass castings for the water scoop and brake standard.

As I was cutting the second one off the sprue it pinged off into space and despite searching the workbench top, I couldn’t find it. Having no idea which way it went, I don’t know where to start looking.

So, I decided that it wouldn’t be too big a job to make a couple of replacements to match. Staring with some 1.5mm brass rod I cross drilled it and turned down the end.

Parting off such a thin piece on the lathe was bound to be a disaster so I opted to cut it off with a piercing saw while it was still held in the collet and… you guessed it, that too pinged off into the swarf and was lost for ever.

Having set everything up it was a few minutes job to prepare some more. This time I played it safe and held the main stock in one pin vice and the part to be cut off in another.

Having established the workflow I decided not only to make the two that I needed but to do a few more for the spares box too. The ones I need for the tender need quite a short stem but I also did some with longer stems just in case I need them for upright brake standards in the future.