Wayne Hortensius - Builder - Calgary Alberta
Scratch Built Formula I - based on the Current SpinMaster Set
After seeing this new set on Ralph and Sue's Meccano News I decided to see if I could build it from the photos using parts on hand. There's no
telling how long it will take the set to show up on this side of the pond and I didn't feel like waiting.
Most of the car went together quickly. I even had the proper wheels, albeit in a garish shade of green! The one thing that I didn't have was
the new cams. But an enquiry on the Spanner mailing list produced the major and minor axis dimensions and after a bit of thought I figured
that I could cut down some plastic triflat gears to make passable stand-ins. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a Dremel tool, some
sandpaper and a bit of determination (especially if you don't mind if the result is a bit rough and ready).
I still haven't come up with a stand in for the fabric covers though.
telling how long it will take the set to show up on this side of the pond and I didn't feel like waiting.
Most of the car went together quickly. I even had the proper wheels, albeit in a garish shade of green! The one thing that I didn't have was
the new cams. But an enquiry on the Spanner mailing list produced the major and minor axis dimensions and after a bit of thought I figured
that I could cut down some plastic triflat gears to make passable stand-ins. It's amazing what you can accomplish with a Dremel tool, some
sandpaper and a bit of determination (especially if you don't mind if the result is a bit rough and ready).
I still haven't come up with a stand in for the fabric covers though.
A Simple Ball Lifter
I needed a break from Arduino programming and with the recent arrival of
a few vital parts from across the pond I decided to have a go at
Subrata's simple ball roller.
The legs on the helix were 1-1/4" screwed rods. Although they cleared
the support axle, they turned out to be just long enough to foul the end
of the ball chute. A bit of finagling with some slotted holed parts
moved the ball chute back out of the way.
The push arm at the top of the helix didn't work out the first time
through. Once I increased its diameter with some small plastic spacers
and added a plastic spacer to the front rail of the ball chute
everything fell into place.
A New Horizontal Ball Roller
Here's another small ball roller based on a Graham Jost original. This one uses pairs of obtuse corner brackets mounted on short single arm
cranks to push and pull the balls along. It's a bit trickier to set up than the crank handle ball roller I tried earlier; getting the individual push 'n pullers aligned properly took a fair bit of tinkering. And, like Graham, I'd run out of multi-purpose gears and I followed his lead of using 50 tooth and 24 tooth gears. 38 tooth 1" gears would work as well.
Horizontal Ball Roller
I saw Graham Jost's version of this model on Spanner and just had to give it a go. I had enough parts to build it except for the crank
handles and multi purpose gears. I'd picked up a dozen of the gears a year or so back; who knew that the first time that I tried to build a
model with them that a dozen wouldn't be enough? But that deficit was soon eliminated thanks to Greg Rahn's incredible Meccano storehouse.
This is the third ball roller that I've tried my hand at, and it's definitely the easiest one to build and the most reliable that I've tried.
Model E-21 - Elektrikit - Permanent Magnet Motor
This PM Motor is currently attached to an Elektrikit Big Wheel. The motor works fine by itself but I haven't gotten it to run for more than a minute or so at a time. A work in progress.....
Elektrikit Model E-21 - PM Motor
Beam Engine
The Beam Engine was put together after I saw a couple of versions of it on the Web. I understand it dates back to Bert Love's Meccano book.
Beam Engine based on a model from Bert Love's Meccano book
Box of Gears
The Box of Gears was inspired by Joe Attard's creation from a few years back. I had to finally disassemble it this year when I needed gears for a Robot Arm that I'm working on.
Box of Gears
