1:35th Hudson rail tractor

[Bernhard]

The two roof supports are made of bent angle sections 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.25 mm.

[Bernhard]

First I tried to bend an angle section accordingly. Although I have soft annealed it, unfortunately an impossible undertaking.
I therefore milled out the supports from 1.5 mm thick brass sheet. This is no problem with a CNC machine, but a bit of a challenge with a hand-operated machine.
The raw material is screwed onto an MDF board mounted on the rotary table.

[Bernhard]

The first step is to mill the outer contour with the large radius at the top. The small corner radii cannot be machined. They must be filed at the very end.

[Bernhard]

Then the angle section is milled with a wall thickness of 0.25 mm. I was not sure whether the vertical legs would be deformed during milling. I therefore supported them on all three sides with shaped pieces made of Pertinax.

[Bernhard]

Next, the inner contour of the support is milled. Three thin webs remain to hold the workpiece still in the plate.

[Bernhard]

Then carefully detach the support from the plate, and file the outer radii. And the parts are ready!

[Bernhard]

The canopy must be bent to fit the supports exactly.

[Bernhard]

This is only possible with a corresponding jig. This is milled from a plastic block.

[Bernhard]

Then the large radius is turned on.

[Bernhard]

The small corner radii can neither be milled nor turned. I therefore milled a shoulder and inserted a suitable round bar into it.

[Bernhard]

Then the sheet is carefully bent over the gauge. This is relative ease if the sheet is annealed several times and reshaped somewhat by hand.

[Bernhard]

The end faces are reworked on the disc sander.

[Bernhard]

The long sides are cut to size with a circular saw blade.

[Bernhard]

And with that, the canopy is ready.

[Bernhard]

The side panels are etched and just need to be bent.