BCMM Gathering - 09-25-2016
Observations - by Jim Picton
This was our first Get-to-Gether for the 2016-17 Season. Once again Fred had to put up with us for a chin-wag and a bit of fun.
Steve brought along some Replica Parts from back east for sale, while Dugan had a wonderful assortment of brassware to dispose of. Thank you both.
Dugan came up from Seattle along with his Mom who is visiting him from Spain. Also on hand were Chris Johnson and his wife Winnie from Australia. Some of us met these folks a couple of months ago when we put together a hurry-up meeting to enable them to meet a few of the locals. At that time I did mention to Chris about our Model Challenge scheduled for this month and he threatened to come back as he wanted to enter the contest. He made good on his promise and showed up at my place several days ago to build a model for the meeting.
What he failed to mention was that the model he had made in Australia, worked very well, but was a tad hard on motors. He proceeded to show me a few pictures of it that were on an Internet site where he got the idea. So, I told him to have at my Meccano parts and build it again for us to all have a look at. While he was in 'building mode' there was constant grumbling about my defective parts, can't find what I'm looking for, and so on and so on.
Well, needless to say I was a bit surprised the next day when he was about ready to demonstrate his creation. As the unit turned out to be a bit of a power hog, batteries were out of the question so I brought out my power supply and hooked it up to what turned out to be a walking device that could burn out my prized little motors at an alarming rate. 3 were toast within minutes. Motor carcasses were piling up all over the table to the point that I was thinking that I would have to send this boy back to Australia in a hurry.
The flywheel is made up from 4 x 4" Circular Discs that take up so much power just to get them revolving that he has to spin them by hand as the in-rush current never drops until the discs are up to speed.
Back to the drawing board it went with Chris feverishly trying to get his model to work before I ran out of motors. But he came through (much to my surprise as well as his own I think). So off it goes, clanging across the table top. Fun times - for him mostly.
Steve brought along some Replica Parts from back east for sale, while Dugan had a wonderful assortment of brassware to dispose of. Thank you both.
Dugan came up from Seattle along with his Mom who is visiting him from Spain. Also on hand were Chris Johnson and his wife Winnie from Australia. Some of us met these folks a couple of months ago when we put together a hurry-up meeting to enable them to meet a few of the locals. At that time I did mention to Chris about our Model Challenge scheduled for this month and he threatened to come back as he wanted to enter the contest. He made good on his promise and showed up at my place several days ago to build a model for the meeting.
What he failed to mention was that the model he had made in Australia, worked very well, but was a tad hard on motors. He proceeded to show me a few pictures of it that were on an Internet site where he got the idea. So, I told him to have at my Meccano parts and build it again for us to all have a look at. While he was in 'building mode' there was constant grumbling about my defective parts, can't find what I'm looking for, and so on and so on.
Well, needless to say I was a bit surprised the next day when he was about ready to demonstrate his creation. As the unit turned out to be a bit of a power hog, batteries were out of the question so I brought out my power supply and hooked it up to what turned out to be a walking device that could burn out my prized little motors at an alarming rate. 3 were toast within minutes. Motor carcasses were piling up all over the table to the point that I was thinking that I would have to send this boy back to Australia in a hurry.
The flywheel is made up from 4 x 4" Circular Discs that take up so much power just to get them revolving that he has to spin them by hand as the in-rush current never drops until the discs are up to speed.
Back to the drawing board it went with Chris feverishly trying to get his model to work before I ran out of motors. But he came through (much to my surprise as well as his own I think). So off it goes, clanging across the table top. Fun times - for him mostly.
Meccano Challenge
This month's Meccano Challenge was to build a model without wheels of any sort that could travel a distance of eight feet. We have made up a set of rules to avoid confusion as to what parts can or can not be used which seemed to have solved previous problems.
As the challenge could cover a wide range of models we had no idea what people would think up so it was exciting to see the range of models that were on the table. Granted most of them did not work as planned but at least the effort was made to build something. To me this is what it is all about - get everyone involved to have a bit of fun.
Pretty much all of the models were walking devices except for one that Fred had made which was of a Spring Launched Sled that worked great on his table but fell short on Steve's track.
From the comments I have received this week I can say we all had a good time seeing each other after the summer holidays.
As the challenge could cover a wide range of models we had no idea what people would think up so it was exciting to see the range of models that were on the table. Granted most of them did not work as planned but at least the effort was made to build something. To me this is what it is all about - get everyone involved to have a bit of fun.
Pretty much all of the models were walking devices except for one that Fred had made which was of a Spring Launched Sled that worked great on his table but fell short on Steve's track.
From the comments I have received this week I can say we all had a good time seeing each other after the summer holidays.
Some of the things on hand.....
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Some of the Walkers.....
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And the Crowds showed up.....
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Thanks again to Fred for putting up with us. Sam for some of the photos and members for showing up. Dugan for smuggling his Mom into Canada and to Chris and Winnie for taking the time to stop by for a visit from Australia.
P.S. - There is a list of suggestions for future model challenges elsewhere on the web-site so please fill in some data as to what the model is supposed to do then we can vote on our next project. The next meeting will be in November so if we can finalize a project by the first of that month we will have three weeks to design, build and test before we show up for some fun.
